Providing group messaging thread highlights

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for identifying and providing highlight messages from a group messaging thread. For example, systems and methods described herein detect when a group messaging thread participant becomes absent from the group messaging thread, and identifies one or more highlight messages that were submitted to the group messaging thread while the participant was absent. Systems and methods described herein identify highlight messages that are specific to the absent participant, such that when the participant again accesses the group messaging thread, the participant can review the identified highlight messages in order to quickly “catch up” on the group messaging thread without having to read each electronic message submitted to the group messaging thread during the participant&#39;s absence.

BACKGROUND

Electronic messaging systems provide the opportunity for groups of usersto exchange electronic messages. For example, a group of users canindividually submit electronic messages to a group messaging thread, andthe electronic messaging system organizes each submitted electronicmessage chronologically, such that the resulting thread includeselectronic messages in the order that they were received. The groupmessaging thread participants can then read the included electronicmessages by, for example, scrolling through the group messaging thread.

A problem arises, however, for a group messaging thread participant whobecomes absent from the thread for a period of time. For example, if theparticipant has been absent from the thread for a period of time (e.g.,the participant has been away from their mobile phone or internetaccess), an overwhelming number of electronic messages may have beensubmitted to the thread by the other group messaging threadparticipants. Thus, when the participant again accesses the groupmessaging thread, the participant is faced with an overwhelming numberof electronic messages that he or she must read in order to “catch up”on the thread. This is generally an inconvenient and time-consumingprocess that can result in the participant becoming disengaged from thegroup messaging thread.

Group messaging thread participants typically do not spend the timerequired to catch up on large numbers of missed messages in a groupmessaging thread. Instead, a group messaging thread participant who hasbeen absent from the thread generally continues on at the thread'scurrent place when he or she next accesses the thread, without anyknowledge of the current context of the conversation. Thus, conventionalelectronic messaging systems are problematic and unable to re-engageparticipants with a group messaging thread after a period of absence.

Accordingly, a need exists for an improved messaging system thataddresses the above disadvantages related to group messaging threads.

SUMMARY

One or more embodiments described herein provide benefits and/or solveone or more of the foregoing or other problems in the art withelectronic communication systems. For instance, the present disclosuredescribes systems, computer-readable media, and methods for updating agroup messaging thread participant on group messaging thread activitythat occurred during a period of absence from a group messaging thread.

In accordance with one or more disclosed embodiments, an electronicmessaging system determines a period of time corresponding to a groupmessaging participant's absence from a group messaging thread. Based onthe determined period of time corresponding to the participant'sabsence, the system identifies one or more “highlight” messages (e.g.,messages likely to be of interest to the participant) from messagesadded to the group messaging thread during the period of absence. Forinstance, in some embodiments the system calculates scores for eachmessage added to the group messaging thread during the period of absenceand identifies the highlight messages based on the calculated scores. Inresponse to the participant accessing the group messaging thread afterthe period of absence, the system provides the identified highlightmessages to the participant.

As mentioned, the system identifies highlight messages to provide to aparticipant after a period of absence. In some embodiments, thehighlight messages can include one or more of the following: electronicmessages within the thread that trigger bursts of conversation,electronic messages that include media or hyperlinks, and electronicmessages that include event information. Moreover, in one or moreadditional or alternative embodiments, the highlight messages caninclude electronic messages that mention the participant or areotherwise directly related to the participant, such as an electronicmessage containing a question directed to the participant by someoneelse while the participant was absent from the thread.

As mentioned, in accordance with one or more embodiments, a systemprovides one or more highlight messages to a participant in response tothe participant accessing a group messaging thread after a period ofabsence. As disclosed herein, the system can provide the highlightmessages to the participant in a number of ways. For example, adisclosed system provides a graphical user interface and correspondingoptions that enable the participant to flip through identified highlightmessages in the group messaging thread, view a listing of the highlightmessages, and/or navigate through the group messaging thread byinteracting with the highlight messages.

In accordance with the above-mentioned features and the additionalfeatures disclosed throughout the description and drawings, thedisclosed systems and methods resolve many problems associated withconventional electronic messaging systems. Indeed, the disclosed systemsand methods enable an absent group messaging participant to quicklycatch up on missed messages and conversations, and re-engage with agroup messaging thread after a period of absence from the groupmessaging thread.

Additional advantages of the present application will be set forth inthe description that follows and the appended drawings, and in part willbe obvious from the disclosed embodiments, or may be learned by thepractice of such embodiments. The features and advantages of suchembodiments may be realized and obtained by the instruments andcombinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. These andother features will become more fully apparent from the followingdescription, appended drawings, and appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description refers to the drawings briefly described below.

FIG. 1 illustrates an environmental diagram of an electroniccommunication system in accordance with one or more embodiments;

FIGS. 2A-2E illustrate a series of graphical user interfacesillustrating various features in accordance with one or more embodimentsof the electronic communication system;

FIGS. 3A-3E illustrate a series of graphical user interfacesillustrating various features in accordance with one or more embodimentsof the electronic communication system;

FIGS. 4A-4F illustrate a series of graphical user interfacesillustrating various features in accordance with one or more embodimentsof the electronic communication system;

FIG. 5 illustrates a detailed schematic diagram of the electroniccommunication system in accordance with one or more embodiments;

FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of a series of acts in a method ofproviding one or more highlight messages in accordance with one or moreembodiments;

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of a series of acts in a method ofproviding one or more highlight messages in a group messaging thread inaccordance with one or more embodiments;

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of a series of acts in a method ofproviding one or more highlight messages in a group messaging thread inaccordance with one or more embodiments;

FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart of a series of acts in a method ofproviding one or more highlight messages in a group messaging thread inaccordance with one or more embodiments;

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary computing device inaccordance with one or more embodiments;

FIG. 11 illustrates an example network environment of a networkingsystem in accordance with one or more embodiments; and

FIG. 12 illustrates a social graph in accordance with one or moreembodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

One or more embodiments of the present disclosure include an improvedelectronic messaging system, as well as corresponding computer-readablemedia and methods. For instance, in accordance with one or moreembodiments, a disclosed system determines a period of timecorresponding to a group messaging thread participant's absence from agroup messaging thread. Based on the determined period of absence, thesystem then identifies electronic messages added to the group messagingthread during the period of absence. In some embodiments, for each ofthe identified electronic messages, the system calculates a score andthen uses the calculated scores to identify highlight messages (e.g.,messages likely to be of interest to the participant). After identifyingthe highlight messages, the system then provides the identifiedhighlight messages to the user when the participant accesses the groupmessaging thread after the period of absence, as explained in moredetail below. In this manner, the system enables the participant toquickly re-engage with the group messaging thread after the period ofabsence.

The embodiments disclosed herein provide a number of advantages overconventional systems. For example, the disclosed electroniccommunication system improves group electronic messaging and engagementwith group messaging threads by mitigating the disruptions caused byperiods of participant absence. Further, by providing highlight messagesto the user in intuitive and non-distracting ways, the electroniccommunication system provides a method by which the participant canquickly catch up on the contents of group messaging thread withoutsacrificing valuable display space within a graphical user interface.For instance, the electronic communication system enables theparticipant to easily view highlight messages, navigate to portions of agroup messaging thread corresponding to the highlight messages, viewmessages related to the highlight messages, and consume content relatedto the highlight messages. The electronic communication system canfurther customize the experience for each participant so as to increasere-engagement for each participant after a period of absence.

To illustrate one example embodiment, the electronic communicationsystem begins by monitoring a group messaging thread participant'sactivity within a social networking system as well as within anelectronic messaging system. For example, the electronic communicationsystem monitors the participant's activities relative to the socialnetworking system including, but not limited to, the participant's“likes,” comments, shares, co-users, and profile information.Additionally, the electronic communication system monitors theparticipant's activities relative to the electronic messaging system.For example, the electronic communication system monitors theparticipant's overall activity level with regard to all of the messagingthreads in which the participant is included. The electroniccommunication system also monitors the co-users and topics with whichthe participant most frequently engages. Finally, the electroniccommunication system monitors the participant's activity level withregard to a particular group messaging thread. In one or moreembodiments, the electronic communication system utilizes this monitoredactivity information when identifying highlight messages and otherwisecustomizing an experience for a participant when the participantaccesses a group messaging thread after a period of absence.

As used herein, a “group messaging thread” refers to a communicationthread that includes three or more participants. For example, acommunication thread between two participants would generally notinclude many electronic messages submitted to the thread by oneparticipant during the other participant's absence. Conversely, a groupmessaging thread including three of more participants may include entireconversations that occur during one of the participant's absence fromthe thread.

Also as used herein, a “highlight message” refers to an electronicmessage selected from a plurality of electronic messages within a groupmessaging thread that the electronic communication system determines islikely to be of interest to a participant following the participant'speriod of absence from the group messaging thread. In one or moreembodiments, electronic messages within a group messaging thread (e.g.,or any communication thread) can include text, media (e.g., digitalphotographs and/or videos), hyperlinks, and other interactive elements(e.g., check-ins, event information). In at least one embodiment, theelectronic communication system determines that an electronic message isa highlight message by analyzing the contents of the electronic message,and determining their potential interest, relative to the participant,as will be explained in more detail below.

Moreover, in one or more embodiments, the electronic communicationsystem utilizes the participant's activity level with regard to theparticular group messaging thread to determine whether and when theparticipant becomes absent from the group messaging thread. For example,in some embodiments the electronic communication system determines thata participant is absent from a group messaging thread for a period oftime based on a determination that the participant has not opened oraccessed the group messaging thread, that the participant has not readone or more messages within the group messaging thread, that theparticipant has closed an electronic messaging application on theparticipant's computing device (e.g., mobile device), that theparticipant has switched focus from an electronic messaging applicationto another application on the participant's computing device, that theparticipant's computing device has powered off, or that the participanthas not otherwise engaged with the group messaging thread. For instance,the participant may close the electronic messaging system application onthe participant's mobile device, may switch focus to another applicationon the participant's mobile device, or may turn off the mobile devicealtogether for a period of time. Moreover, in some embodiments, theelectronic messaging system determines that a participant is absent froma group messaging thread when the participant's activity level inrelation to the group messaging thread drops below a threshold amount.

In one or more embodiments, during a participant's period of absencefrom a group messaging thread, the electronic communication systemmonitors the group messaging thread to identify electronic messagesadded to the thread by other participants during the period of absence.For example, in a group messaging thread between three or moreparticipants, a thread conversation may continue, even in the absence ofone of the participants. Thus, after determining that the participant isabsent from the group messaging thread, the electronic communicationsystem identifies the electronic messages added to the thread during theparticipant's absence by other thread participants.

In anticipation of or when the participant next returns to the groupmessaging thread (e.g., accesses the group messaging thread via theelectronic communication system application on his or her mobile phoneor other computing device), the electronic communication systemidentifies one or more highlight messages among the electronic messagesadded to the thread during the participant's absence by other threadparticipants. In one or more embodiments, the electronic communicationsystem determines that an electronic message from the group messagingthread is a highlight message by calculating a score for the electronicmessage based on the electronic message and information specific to theparticipant. If the calculated score is higher than a threshold amount,the electronic messaging system determines that the electronic messageis indeed a highlight message.

In one or more embodiments, the electronic communication systemcalculates a score for an electronic message based on severalcharacteristics of the electronic message. For example, the electroniccommunication system calculates the score for the electronic messagebased on an analysis of the contents of the electronic message, based onan analysis of surrounding message activity in the group messagingthread, and based on information specific to the participant in relationto the electronic message.

For instance, in one or more embodiments, the electronic communicationsystem performs an analysis of the contents of an electronic messagesubmitted to the group messaging thread during the participant'sabsence. In at least one embodiment, the electronic communication systemanalyzes the contents of the electronic message to identify one or moredigital media items (e.g., digital photographs, digital videos) in theelectronic message. Further, the electronic communication systemanalyzes any text included in the electronic message to identify a topicin which the participant is likely interested, to identify eventinformation, or to identify a mention of the participant or a mention ofanother thread participant with whom the participant has a highrelationship coefficient. In at least one embodiment, the electroniccommunication system calculates a higher score for an electronic messagewith contents including any of the above.

As just mentioned above, the electronic communication system alsoperforms an analysis of surrounding message activity in the groupmessaging thread. In one or more embodiments, the electroniccommunication system considers it likely that when an electronic messagecauses an increase to the rate or quantity of thread activity, theelectronic message is a highlight message. Thus, the electroniccommunication system analyzes submission timestamps for electronicmessages in the group messaging thread that lead up to and follow theelectronic message being analyzed. For example, the electroniccommunication system may analyze submission timestamps for the fivepreceding and five succeeding electronic messages relative to theanalysis electronic message. If the electronic communication systemidentifies a “lull” in the conversation leading up to the analysiselectronic message (e.g., the preceding electronic messages havetimestamps that are spaced out), and a “flurry” of conversationfollowing the analysis electronic message (e.g., the succeedingelectronic messages have timestamps that are close together), theelectronic communication system can calculate a higher score for theanalysis electronic message or otherwise conclude that the electronicmessage is a highlight message.

Also mentioned above, the electronic communication system calculates ascore for an electronic message based on information specific to theparticipant in relation to the electronic message. In one or moreembodiments, the electronic communication system identifies highlightmessages that are specific to a particular participant. For example, ahighlight message that is specific to one participant may be anelectronic message that includes a mention of that participant. Thus, inone or more embodiments, the electronic communication system would notidentify this electronic message as a highlight message for a differentparticipant of the group messaging thread.

Accordingly, the electronic communication system performs an analysis ofinformation specific to a particular participant in relation to ananalysis electronic message to calculate a score for the analysiselectronic message. In one or more embodiments, the electroniccommunication system analyzes text included in the electronic message todetermine whether the electronic message mentions the participant (e.g.,the electronic message's sender tagged the participant in the electronicmessage), whether the electronic message includes a topic in which theparticipant is interested (e.g., based on the participant's socialnetworking system activity history, based on the participant'selectronic messaging system activity history), or whether the electronicmessage discusses an event that the participant would likely want toattend (e.g., based on the participant's social networking systemactivity history, based on the participant's electronic messaging systemactivity history).

Additionally, the electronic communication system can calculate a scorefor an electronic message based on a relationship coefficient betweenthe electronic message's sender and the participant. For example, in oneor more embodiments, the social networking system calculates arelationship coefficient between two users that represents the strengthof the relationship between the two users as evidenced by socialnetworking system activity history shared by both users. To illustrate,two social networking system users may have a high relationshipcoefficient evidenced by their similar age, their shared educationalexperience (e.g., they attended the same school at the same time), theirshared social activities (e.g., tagging each other in pictures, checkingin at the same locations), and the length of their “friendship” via thesocial networking system. Two different social networking system usermay have a low relationship coefficient evidenced by the fact that theonly social networking system activity history they share is that theyboth work for the same company.

In one or more embodiments, the electronic communication systemcalculates a higher score for an electronic message submitted to thegroup messaging thread by a sender with whom the participant has a highrelationship coefficient. For example, in at least one embodiment, theelectronic communication system assumes that the participant would bemore interested in reading electronic messages from a close friend.Thus, the electronic communication system is more likely to identify anelectronic message from a sender with a high relationship coefficient asa highlight message.

Once the electronic communication system calculates a score for eachelectronic message submitted to the group messaging thread during theparticipant's absence, the electronic communication system identifiesone or more highlight messages among the scored electronic messages. Inone or more embodiments, the electronic communication system determinesthat electronic messages with a score above a threshold amount arehighlight messages. Alternatively, the electronic communication systemmay determine that a certain number or percentage of top-scoringelectronic messages are highlight messages.

In yet further embodiments, the electronic communication systemidentifies highlight messages based on the satisfaction of one or morecriteria, without necessarily calculating scores for the messages. Forexample, in some embodiments, the electronic communication systemdetermines that an electronic message is a highlight message because themessage includes a reference to the participant, includes a digitalimage, sparks a flurry of conversation, is from a close friend of theparticipant, or includes any other characteristic determined to be ofparticular interest to the participant, such as any of thecharacteristics mentioned above. Accordingly, the electroniccommunication system need not base the identification of highlightmessages on calculated scores of the highlight messages, as describedabove. Rather, the electronic communication system can additionally oralternatively identify highlight messages based on any criteriaindicating a likelihood of interest by the user in the message.

After identifying one or more highlight messages corresponding to theparticipant's absence from the group messaging thread, the electroniccommunication system provides the highlight messages to the participantin one of various ways. For example, the electronic communication systemcan enable the participant to simply “flip” from one highlight messageto the next within the group messaging thread. Alternatively, theelectronic communication system can compile excerpts of the identifiedhighlight messages, and provide the highlight excerpts in connectionwith the group messaging thread. Thus, the participant can quickly andeasily review the highlight excerpts in order to get caught up with thethread and/or jump to certain positions within the thread to answer aquestion, to view a photograph, or to read an interesting exchange.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example block diagram of an environment forimplementing an electronic communication system 100. As illustrated inFIG. 1, the electronic communication system 100 includes server(s) 106,on which an electronic messaging system 108 operates. Further shown inFIG. 1, the electronic communication system 100 includes theclient-computing devices 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c. Each of theclient-computing devices 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c include an electronicmessaging system application 104 a, 104 b, and 104 c, respectively.

The server(s) 106 and the client-computing devices 102 a, 102 b, and 102c communicate via the network 110, which may include one or morenetworks and may use one or more communication platforms or technologiessuitable for transmitting data and/or communication signals. In one ormore embodiments, the network 110 includes the Internet or World WideWeb. The network 110, however, can include various other types ofnetworks that use various communication technologies and protocols, suchas a corporate intranet, a virtual private network (“VPN”), a local areanetwork (“LAN”), a wireless local network (“WLAN”), a cellular network,a wide area network (“WAN”), a metropolitan area network (“MAN”), or acombination of two or more such networks.

Although FIG. 1 illustrates a particular arrangement of the server(s)106, the client-computing devices 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c, and thenetwork 110 various additional arrangements are possible. For example,the client-computing devices 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c may directlycommunicate with the server(s) 106, bypassing the network 110.Additional details relating to the network 110 are explained below withreference to FIG. 11.

As shown in FIG. 1, the client-computing devices 102 a, 102 b, 102 cinclude the electronic messaging system application 104 a, 104 b, 104 c,respectively. In at least one embodiment, the electronic messagingsystem application 104 a, 104 b, 104 c organizes electronic messagesexchanged between the users of the electronic messaging system 108 intocommunication threads, where each thread includes a chronologicalordering of electronic messages, as well as additional indicators as towho authored an electronic message and whether the electronic messagehas been delivered and/or read.

As illustrated, in one or more embodiments, the server(s) 106 caninclude all, or a portion of, the electronic messaging system 108. Inparticular, the electronic communication system 100 can comprise anapplication running on the server(s) 106 or a portion of a softwareapplication that can be downloaded from the server(s) 106. For example,the electronic messaging system 108 can include a web hostingapplication that allows one or more of the client-computing devices 102a, 102 b, and 102 c to interact with content hosted at the server(s)106. To illustrate, in one or more embodiments of the electroniccommunication system 100, the client-computing device 102 a communicateswith the server(s) 106 to send and receive electronic messages for auser of the client-computing device 102 a. In particular, theclient-computing device 102 a can run an application to allow a user tocompose, access, view, and/or interact with electronic messages andmessaging threads facilitated by the server(s) 106 and electronicmessaging system 108.

Although FIG. 1 illustrates a particular arrangement of theclient-computing devices 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c, the network 110, andthe server(s) 106, various additional arrangements are possible. Forexample, while FIG. 1 illustrates the client-computing devices 102 a,102 b, and 102 c communication with the server(s) 106 via the network110, in one or more embodiments, additional client-computing devices canalso communicate with the server(s) 106 via the network 110, ordirectly.

Similarly, although FIG. 1 illustrates various components, theelectronic communication system 100 may have additional or alternativecomponents. For example, the electronic communication system 100 can beimplemented on a single computing device. In particular, the electroniccommunication system 100 may be implemented in whole by one of theclient-computing devices 102 a, 102 b, or 102 c, or the electroniccommunication system 100 may be implemented in whole by the server(s)106. Alternatively, the electronic communication system 100 may beimplemented across multiple devices or components (e.g., utilizingmultiple client-computing devices and the server(s) 106).

As discussed above, the systems and methods laid out with reference toFIG. 1 receive electronic messages, organize the electronic messagesinto a messaging thread, and identify one or more highlight messagessubmitted to the communication thread during a user's absence. By way ofexample, in one or more embodiments, the users of the client-computingdevices 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c utilize the electronic messaging systemapplications 104 a, 104 b, and 104 c, respectively to submit electronicmessages to a group messaging thread. The electronic messaging system108 organizes the submitted electronic messages chronologically in thegroup messaging thread, and the users of the client-computing devices102 a, 102 b, and 102 c utilize the electronic messaging systemapplications 104 a, 104 b, and 104 c, respectively to view the organizedgroup messaging thread.

In one or more embodiments, when the user of the client-computing device102 a becomes inactive for a threshold period of time, the electroniccommunication system 100 determines that the user of theclient-computing device 102 a is absent from the group messaging thread.During this user's period of absence, the other users of theclient-computing device 102 b and the client-computing device 102 c maycontinue to add electronic messages to the group messaging thread. Thus,when the user of the client-computing device 102 a again accesses thegroup messaging thread via the electronic messaging system application104 a, the electronic communication system 100 identifies one or morehighlight messages among the electronic messages added by the users ofthe client-computing devices 102 b, 102 c during the period of absenceassociated with the user of the client-computing device 102 a. Theelectronic communication system 100 can present the identified highlightmessages to the user of the client-computing device 102 a via theelectronic messaging system application 104 a in a variety of ways, aswill be discussed below with reference to FIGS. 2A-4F.

For example, the electronic communication system 100 can provide, aloneand/or in combination with other components, one or more graphical userinterfaces (“GUIs” or “interfaces”) in performing its functions. Forinstance, the electronic communication system 100 can utilize theelectronic messaging system application 104 a, 104 b, 104 c to provideGUIs with interface elements that allow the group messaging threadparticipants to interact with the electronic messaging system 108. Toillustrate, FIGS. 2A-4F and the description that follows illustratevarious example embodiments of GUIs and features in accordance with oneor more embodiments of the electronic communication system 100.

For example, FIG. 2A illustrates a client-computing device 202 (e.g., asan example of the client-computing device 102 a shown in FIG. 1) thatmay implement one or more of the components or features of theelectronic communication system 100. As shown, the client-computingdevice 202 is a handheld device, such as a mobile phone device (e.g., asmartphone). As used herein, the term “handheld device” refers to adevice sized and configured to be held/operated in a single hand of auser. In additional or alternative examples, however, theclient-computing device 202 may be any other suitable computing device,such as, but not limited to, a tablet device, a larger wireless device,a laptop or desktop computer, a personal digital assistant device, awearable computing device (e.g., a head-mounted computing device),and/or any other suitable computing device.

As illustrated in FIG. 2A, the client-computing device 202 includes atouch screen display 204 that can display GUIs and receive and/or detectuser input. As used herein, a “touch screen display” refers to thedisplay of a touch screen device (e.g., the client-computing device202). In one or more embodiments, a touch screen device may be anycomputing device with at least one surface upon which a user may performtouch gestures (e.g., a laptop, a tablet computer, a personal digitalassistant, a media player, a mobile phone). Additionally oralternatively, the client-computing device 202 may include any othersuitable input device, such as a touch pad or those described below withreference to FIG. 10.

In FIG. 2A, the touch screen display 204 displays a thread listing GUI206 provided by an electronic messaging system application (e.g.,electronic messaging system application 104 a). As shown, the threadlisting GUI 206 includes a messaging thread list 208 indicating one ormore messaging threads in which the user of the client-computing device202 is a participant. For example, as shown in FIG. 2A, the messagingthread control 210 indicates that the user of the client-computingdevice 202 is a participant in the messaging thread entitled “TotallyFun Club.” In one or more embodiments, the messaging thread control 210also includes additional information such as the date the user of theclient-computing device 202 last accesses the messaging threadassociated with the messaging thread control 210, a profile pictureassociated with the messaging thread, part or all of a last electronicmessage accessed by the user of the client-computing device 202 withinthe associated messaging thread, and an indication of whethernotifications associated with the messaging thread have been muted.

As also shown in FIG. 2A, the messaging thread control 210 can include amissed messages indicator 212. In one or more embodiments, in responseto determining that the user of the client-computing device 202 has notaccessed or has otherwise been absent from a particular messagingthread, the electronic communication system 100 identifies electronicmessages submitted to the messaging thread in the user's absence. Thus,the messaging thread control 210 indicates that since the user of theclient-computing device 202 was last active in the “Totally Fun Club”messaging thread, one hundred and twenty-four electronic messages havebeen added to that messaging thread by other participants.

In response to a detected selection of the messaging thread control 210,the messaging application provides the messaging thread GUI 214 on thetouch screen display 204 of the client-computing device 202, as shown inFIG. 2B. In one or more embodiments, the electronic communication system100 (via the messaging application) includes the one or more electronicmessages included in the messaging thread in the messaging thread GUI214. For example, as shown in FIG. 2B, the electronic communicationsystem 100 organizes the one or more electronic messages into the groupmessaging thread 216. As discussed above, the electronic communicationsystem 100 organizes the one or more electronic messages in the groupmessaging thread 216 chronologically in the order each electronicmessage is received by the electronic communication system 100.

In one or more embodiments, the electronic messages 218 a, 218 b, 218 c,and 218 d are the last electronic messages in the group messaging thread216 read by the user of the client-computing device 202 the last timethe user accessed the group messaging thread 216. As discussed above,the electronic communication system 100 monitors a group messagingthread participant's activity level relative to a group messaging thread216 (e.g., by monitoring each time the participant opens the groupmessaging thread 216). When the participant is absent from the groupmessaging thread 216 (e.g., doesn't open, access, or otherwise interactwith the group messaging thread 216), the electronic communicationsystem 100 monitors the group messaging thread to, for example, identifythe electronic messages added to the group messaging thread 216 duringthe participant's absence.

When the user of the client-computing device 202 (e.g., the absentparticipant) next accesses the group messaging thread 216, theelectronic communication system 100 provides (via the messagingapplication on the client-computing device 202) a last read position bar220, as shown in FIG. 2B. In one or more embodiments, the messagingapplication displays the last read position bar 220 directly adjacent tothe last electronic message (e.g., the electronic message 218 d) read bythe user of the client-computing device 202. As also shown in FIG. 2B,in at least one embodiment, the messaging application displays (e.g., inthe last read position bar 220) the number of electronic messages thathave been added to the group messaging thread 216 during the user'speriod of absence. In one or more embodiments, once the user of theclient-computing device 202 scrolls down through the group messagingthread 216 to view the unread messages, the messaging applicationremoves the last read position bar 220. Alternatively, the messagingapplication can reposition the last read position bar 220 as the userscrolls down through the group messaging thread 216, and update thedisplayed number of unread messages in the last read position bar 220,until the user scrolls all the way to the bottom (e.g., the mostrecently submitted electronic message) of the group messaging thread216, after which the last read position bar 220 is removed.

As discussed above, after a period of absence, the electroniccommunication system 100 identifies highlight messages from among theelectronic messages added during the user's absence from the groupmessaging thread 216. In one or more embodiments, the electroniccommunication system 100 provides the identified highlight messages in avariety of ways. For example, in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2B,the messaging application provides a highlight message control 222including selectable options for accessing the identified highlightmessages. For instance, as shown in FIG. 2B, the highlight messagecontrol 222 includes buttons 224 a, 224 b, 224 c, and 224 d. In responseto a detected selection of one of the buttons 224 a-224 d, the messagingapplication navigates within the group messaging thread 216 to differentdisplay positions corresponding to the highlight messages.

In some embodiments, each of buttons 224 a, 224 b, 224 c corresponds toa different category of highlight message and is selectable to navigateto highlight messages within the corresponding category. As furthershown, each of the buttons 224 a-224 c includes a number indicating thenumber of highlight messages identified for each category of highlightmessage. By interacting with each of the buttons 224 a-224 c, the usercan navigate to and view the corresponding highlight messages pertainingto that button.

For example, in response to the detected selection of the button 224 ain the highlight message control 222, the messaging applicationnavigates within the group messaging thread 216 to a positioncorresponding to a first identified highlight message corresponding tothe category of highlight messages represented by button 224 a. In oneor more embodiments, in response to each additional selection of thebutton 224 a, the messaging application navigates to the displayposition for the subsequent highlight message corresponding to thebutton 224 a (e.g., until the user has viewed all of the highlightmessages corresponding to button 224 a). For instance, in response tothe repeated selection of the button 224 a, the messaging applicationcan navigate chronologically through the identified highlight messages.Alternatively, in response to the repeated selection of the button 224a, the messaging application can navigate through the identifiedhighlight messages based on each highlight message's score or rank, aswill be described further below. This provides the user of theclient-computing device 202 with a quick and easy way to review the sixidentified highlight messages in order to get caught up on the groupmessaging thread 216, rather than having to read through all of the onehundred twenty-four electronic messages that the user missed during theuser's period of absence.

In some embodiments, as discussed above, the electronic communicationsystem 100 identifies highlight messages by calculating a score for eachelectronic message submitted to the group messaging thread 216 duringthe period of absence associated with the user of the client-computingdevice 202. For example, the electronic communication system 100calculates a score for each of the one hundred and twenty-fourelectronic messages based on various characteristics. In one or moreembodiments, for each electronic message added to the group messagingthread 216 during the user's absence, the electronic communicationsystem 100 calculates the score for the electronic message based on ananalysis of the contents of the electronic message, based on an analysisof electronic message activity surrounding the electronic message,and/or based on information specific to the user of the client-computingdevice 202.

To illustrate, the electronic communication system 100 analyzes thecontents of an electronic message to identify one or more of digitalmedia items, text, hyperlinks, interactive elements (e.g., mentions,tags, check-ins), or other metadata associated with the electronicmessage. In one or more embodiments, the electronic communication system100 calculates a higher score for an electronic message that containscertain elements. For example, electronic communication system 100 cancalculate a higher score for an electronic message that includes adigital image because users tend to be more interested in messages thatinclude images. In another example, the electronic communication system100 can calculate a higher score for an electronic message with textthat includes keywords indicating event plans (e.g., a date and time, alocation, words such as “plan”). In yet another example, the electroniccommunication system 100 can calculate a higher score for an electronicmessage with text that includes or mentions the name of the user of theclient-computing device 202 (e.g., indicating that the electronicmessage is directed to the user of the client-computing device 202).Alternatively, the electronic messaging system 100 can identify each ofthe foregoing types of messages as highlight messages independent of anyscore calculations.

Furthermore, in some embodiments the electronic communication system 100analyzes electronic message activity surrounding an electronic messageand calculates a score accordingly. For instance, if an electronicmessage causes an increase in a rate of messaging, an increase in aquantity of messages, or an increase to the length of messages added tothe group messaging thread after the electronic message, the electroniccommunication system 100 may calculate a higher score for the electronicmessage. For example, the electronic communication system 100 determineswhether an electronic message causes an increase in a rate of messagingby analyzing timestamps associated with the electronic message and othersurrounding (e.g., preceding and succeeding) electronic messages. If themessaging activity (e.g., messages submitted per minute) prior to theelectronic message is low, but increases after the electronic message,the electronic communication system 100 can determine that theelectronic message caused an increase in the rate of messaging. Further,if the messages submitted prior to the electronic message are short, butbecome lengthy following the electronic message, the electroniccommunication system 100 can determine that the electronic messagecaused an increase to the length of messages in the group messagingthread 216. Based on the determined increase in rate, quantity, length,and/or quality of messaging after the analyzed electronic message, theelectronic communication system 100 may determine that the electronicmessage is a highlight message.

In additional or alternative embodiments, the electronic communicationsystem 100 analyzes and utilizes information specific to the user of theclient-computing device 202 when calculating a score for an electronicmessage. To illustrate, the electronic communication system 100 canaccess social networking system information related to the user of theclient-computing device 202. Based on the social networking systeminformation, the electronic communication system 100 can identify arelationship coefficient between the user of the client-computing device202 and the sender of the electronic message. In at least oneembodiment, the electronic communication system 100 calculates a higherscore for the electronic message if the relationship coefficient betweenthe user of the client-computing device 202 and the sender of theelectronic message is also high.

After the electronic communication system 100 calculates a score foreach electronic message submitted during the period of absencecorresponding to the user of the client-computing device 202, theelectronic communication system 100 identifies one or more highlightmessages. For example, in one embodiment, the electronic communicationsystem 100 identifies a top percentage of scored electronic messages ashighlight messages (e.g., the top ten percent of scored messages).Alternatively, the electronic communication system 100 may identify atop number of scored electronic messages as highlight messages (e.g.,the ten scored messages with the highest scores). In yet furtherembodiments, the electronic communication system 100 identifieselectronic messages having a particular characteristic (e.g., includes adigital image, mentions the user, includes event information, or causesan increase in messaging activity) as highlight messages.

In a further embodiment, the electronic communication system 100 can“learn” the user's preferences with regard to highlight messages. Forexample, the electronic communication system 100 can determine, inresponse to the user of the client-computing device 202 frequentlyinteracting with or viewing highlight messages, that the threshold scorefor identifying a highlight message can be lowered (e.g., thus enablingmore electronic messages to qualify as highlight messages). Conversely,the electronic communication system 100 can determine, in response tothe user of the client-computing device 202 rarely interacting with orviewing highlight messages, that the threshold score for identifying ahighlight message should be raised (e.g., thus making it harder for anelectronic message to qualify as a highlight message). In yet furtherembodiments, if the user interacts with highlight messages of aparticular type or having a particular characteristic more than others,the electronic communication system 100 can alter its heuristics orscoring to provide more highlight messages having the particular type orcharacteristic to the user in the future.

After identifying one or more highlight messages among the electronicmessages submitting during the period of absence associated with theuser of the client-computing device 202, the electronic communicationsystem 100 can further rank the identified highlight messages. Forexample, in one or more embodiments, the electronic communication system100 ranks the identified highlight messages based on an electronicmessaging system activity history associated with the user of theclient-computing device 202. For example, the user of theclient-computing device 202 may have an activity history associated withthe electronic messaging system 108 of only viewing highlight messagesthat include a digital media item (e.g., an image). Accordingly, theelectronic communication system 100 may rank highlight messagescontaining digital media items higher than highlight messages that onlyinclude text.

Additionally or alternatively, the electronic communication system 100may rank the identified highlight messages based on a social networkingsystem activity history. For example, in at least one embodiment, theelectronic communication system 100 can access social networking systeminformation to analyze activity history associated with the user of theclient-computing device 202. From this activity history, the electroniccommunication system 100 can determine information associated with theuser of the client-computing device 202 including, but not limited to,the user's interests, hobbies, and demographic information. Theelectronic communication system 100 can further rank highlight messagesbased on this information.

In at least one embodiment, the electronic communication system 100further categorizes each identified highlight message based on thecontents of the identified highlight message. For example, theelectronic communication system 100 can associate each identifiedhighlight message with at least one of several categories including, butnot limited to: digital media, hyperlink, recording, event, mention, orinterests. For instance, the electronic communication system 100 mayassociate a highlight message containing a digital photograph or videowith the digital media category, a highlight message containing ahyperlink with the hyperlink category, a recording with the recordingcategory, event information with the event category, a mention of theuser of the client-computing device 202 with the mention category, orone or more keywords flagged as interests associated with the user ofthe client-computing device 202 with the interests category.

Thus, returning again to FIG. 2B, in at least one embodiment, theelectronic communication system 100 provides the buttons 224 b and 224 cin order to enable the user to quickly navigate among various categoriesof highlight messages. For example, as described above, in response tothe repeated selection of the button 224 a in the highlight messagecontrol 222, the electronic communication system 100 navigates to eachidentified highlight message. Put another way, the electroniccommunication system 100 identifies a group message thread identifierassociated with each identified highlight message and navigates withinthe group message thread to the identifier. In one or more embodiments,in response to the repeated selection of the button 224 b, theelectronic communication system 100 navigates through each identifiedhighlight message in the digital media category. Similarly, in responseto the repeated selection of the button 224 c, the electroniccommunication system 100 navigates through each identified highlightmessage in the hyperlink category.

In at least one embodiment, the electronic communication system 100provides category buttons (e.g., the buttons 224 b and 224 c) in thehighlight message control 222 based on preferences and/or use history ofthe user of the client-computing device 202. For example, the electroniccommunication system 100 can monitor the interactions of the user of theclient-computing device 202 with the highlight message control 222. Overtime, the electronic communication system 100 may not provide buttonsfor categories with which the user infrequently interacts. For example,if the user of the client-computing device 202 only interacts with thebutton 224 a and the button 224 b after twenty times accessing thehighlight message control 222, the electronic communication system 100may not provide the button 224 c the next time the user accesses thegroup messaging thread 216. In another embodiment, the electroniccommunication system 100 may monitor the categories of highlight messagewith which the user spends the most time (e.g., by tracking scrollspeed, eye movement). In that embodiment, the electronic communicationsystem 100 may provide buttons for the categories identified as beingmost interesting to the user of the client-computing device 202.

As mentioned above, in response to a detected selection of one of thebuttons 224 a-224 d in the highlight message control 222, the messagingapplication navigates the group messaging thread 216 to a displayposition corresponding with a highlight message. For example, inresponse to detecting the selection of the button 224 b, the messagingapplication navigates within the group messaging thread 216 to a displayposition corresponding to the highlight message 226 a within the groupmessaging thread 216, as shown in FIG. 2C. As discussed above, thehighlight message 226 a may be the highest scoring highlight message inthe digital media category, or may be chronologically the firsthighlight message in the digital media category within the groupmessaging thread 216.

In one or more embodiments, the messaging application updates thebuttons 224 a-224 d in the highlight message control 222 in response tothe detected selection of one or more of the buttons 224 a-224 d. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 2C, in response to navigating to the displayposition corresponding to the highlight message 226 a, the messagingapplication updates the buttons 224 a and 224 b to reflect that thereare now five total highlight messages and three digital media highlightmessages remaining that the user of the client-computing device 202 hasnot seen or otherwise accessed. Additionally or alternatively, themessaging application can also update the buttons 224 a-224 d inresponse to detecting the user of the client-computing device 202 simplyscrolling down through the group messaging thread 216. For example, asthe user scrolls past each highlight message in the group messagingthread 216, the messaging application can update the buttons 224 a-224 daccordingly.

FIG. 2D further illustrates this navigation process. For example, inresponse to the detected selection of the button 224 c (e.g., thehyperlink category of highlight messages), the messaging applicationnavigates to a display position associated with the highlight message226 b. As described above, the messaging application updates the buttons224 a-224 d to reflect that one less highlight message exists that theuser of the client-computing device 202 has not seen.

At any time, the messaging application can navigate to the bottom (e.g.,the most recent portion) of the group messaging thread 216. For example,in response to a detected selection of the button 224 d in the highlightmessage control 222, the messaging application navigates to a displayposition corresponding to the most recent electronic message added tothe group messaging thread 216, as shown in FIG. 2E. At that point, themessaging application may remove the highlight message control 222 fromthe GUI as shown in FIG. 2E.

The embodiments shown in FIGS. 2A-2E illustrate how the electroniccommunication system 100 can identify and provide highlight messages tothe user of the client-computing device 202 via the highlight messagecontrol 222. In additional or alternative embodiments, the electroniccommunication system 100 can provide identified highlight messages inother ways. For example, as will be described with reference to FIGS.3A-3E, the electronic communication system 100 can provide identifiedhighlight messages via a horizontally scrollable display.

For instance, FIG. 3A illustrates the messaging thread list 208 in thethread listing GUI 206 provided by the messaging application on thetouch screen display 204 of the client-computing device 202. Asdescribed with reference to FIG. 2A, in FIG. 3A and in response to adetected selection of the messaging thread control 210 including themissed messages indicator 212, the messaging application provides themessaging thread GUI 214 on the touch screen display 204 of theclient-computing device 202. Similar to FIG. 2B, the messaging threadGUI 214 in FIG. 3B displays the group messaging thread 216 includingelectronic messages (e.g., the electronic messages 218 a-218 d)exchanged between the participants in the group messaging thread 216.

Further illustrated in FIG. 3B, in one or more embodiments, theelectronic communication system 100 provides the horizontal scrolldisplay 228 directly adjacent to the last electronic message read by theuser of the client-computing device 202 (e.g., the electronic message218 d). As described above with reference to FIG. 2B, the electroniccommunication system 100 determines when the user of theclient-computing device 202 is absent from the group messaging thread216 and identifies one or more highlight messages from electronicmessages submitted to the group messaging thread 216 by other groupmessaging thread participants during the period of absence.

As shown in FIG. 3B, the messaging application displays, within thegroup messaging thread 216, a horizontal scroll display 228 includingthe highlight excerpts 230 a-230 d. For example, in order to save spaceand reduce visual clutter within the messaging thread GUI 214, themessaging application does not include the full contents of eachidentified highlight message in the horizontal scroll display 228.Instead, after identifying one or more highlight messages among theelectronic messages submitted to the group messaging thread 216 duringthe user's period of absence, the messaging application generates ahighlight excerpt associated with each identified highlight message(e.g., a thumbnail of a digital image from a highlight message, aportion of the text from a highlight message).

In one or more embodiments, the electronic communication system 100generates a highlight excerpt associated with a highlight message byanalyzing the contents of the highlight message and extracting the mostrelevant portions of the highlight message to include in the associatedhighlight excerpt. For example, in at least one embodiment, theelectronic communication system 100 utilizes a category associated withthe highlight message to identify relevant portions of the highlightmessage. To illustrate, if the highlight message includes a digitalimage, the electronic communication system 100 will identify the digitalimage and generate a thumbnail for the digital image. In anotherexample, if the highlight message is categorized as an event highlightmessage, the electronic communication system 100 will generate anexcerpt to include the event information (e.g., a date, time, location).Thus, as shown in FIG. 3B, the electronic communication system 100generates the highlight excerpt 230 a based on a digital image includedin the highlight message, the highlight excerpt 230 b based on ahyperlink included in the highlight message, the highlight excerpt 230 cbased on an audio recording from the highlight message, the highlightexcerpt 230 d based on event information from the highlight message, andthe highlight excerpt 230 e (e.g., shown in FIG. 3C) based on a mentionof the user in the highlight message.

In one or more embodiments, the electronic communication system 100 caninclude any number of highlight excerpts in the horizontal scrolldisplay 228. In response to detecting a swipe touch gesture (e.g., oranother similar input), the messaging application can scroll through thehorizontal scroll display 228 in order to display additional highlightexcerpts. For example, as shown in FIG. 3C, in response to detecting aswipe-left touch gesture in association with the horizontal scrolldisplay 228, the messaging application displays an additional highlightexcerpt (e.g., the highlight excerpt 230 e) while removing the highlightexcerpts 230 a and 230 b from display within the horizontal scrolldisplay 228.

In some embodiments, the highlight excerpts are interactive and/orselectable. For example, in response to a detected selection of thehighlight excerpt 230 c for a highlight message including an audiorecording, the electronic messaging application provides an audioplayback control overlaid on the messaging thread GUI 214 to allow theuser to listen to the audio recording from the highlight message.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3D, the highlight excerpt 230 e is associatedwith a mention highlight message, where another participant in the groupmessaging thread 216 has directed a question at or otherwise mentionedthe user of the client-computing device 202. As shown, the highlightexcerpt 230 e includes a selectable “Reply” hyperlink. In response to adetected selection of the “Reply” hyperlink, the messaging applicationcan auto-populate the text box 236 with a mention of the sender of thehighlight message associated with the highlight excerpt 230 e (e.g.,“Alina Healy”). The user of the client-computing device 202 can use theauto-populated message to compose an electronic message in response tosender of the highlight message.

In response to detecting a selection of any of the highlight excerpts230 a-230 e, the messaging application can navigate within the groupmessaging thread 216 to a display position associated with the highlightmessage that corresponds with the selected highlight excerpt. Forexample, in response to a detected selection of the highlight excerpt230 d in FIG. 3D, the messaging application navigates within the groupmessaging thread 216 to a display position associated with the highlightmessage 226 c, as shown in FIG. 3E. As shown, the messaging applicationvertically centers the highlight message 226 c in the messaging threadGUI 214, such that the highlight message 226 c may be easily read.Further, in one or more embodiments, the messaging applicationrepositions the horizontal scroll display 228 immediately adjacent tothe highlight message 226 c, and removes the highlight excerpt 230 dfrom the horizontal scroll display 228 (e.g., indicating that thecorresponding highlight message is no longer unread).

Also illustrated in FIG. 3E, in response to navigating the groupmessaging thread 216 to the highlight message 226 c, the messagingapplication can also update the number of unread messages displayed inthe horizontal scroll display 228. For example, in one or moreembodiments, because the messaging application navigates directly to thehighlight message 226 c, the system assumes that the user of theclient-computing device 202 does not read any intervening electronicmessages in the group messaging thread 216 between the user's previousdisplay position and the current display position. Thus, the messagingapplication updates the number of unread messages the horizontal scrolldisplay 228 to account for the electronic messages currently displayedin the messaging thread GUI 214. In at least one embodiment, theelectronic communication system 100 continues to track the number ofunread messages if the user simply scrolls beyond the currentlydisplayed electronic messages rather than selecting another highlightexcerpt. In alternative embodiment, the system assumes that the user hasread all messages preceding the highlight message 226 and updates thenumber of unread messages accordingly.

The embodiment of the electronic communication system 100 shown in FIGS.3A-3E illustrates how the electronic communication system 100 providesone or more identified highlight messages to the user of theclient-computing device 202 via the horizontal scroll display 228. Inadditional or alternative embodiments, the electronic communicationsystem 100 can provide identified highlight messages in other ways. Forexample, as will be described with reference to FIGS. 4A-4F, theelectronic communication system 100 can provide identified highlightmessages via a graphical user interface in another way.

FIG. 4A illustrates the messaging thread list 208 in the thread listingGUI 206 provided by the messaging application on the touch screendisplay 204 of the client-computing device 202. As described withreference to FIGS. 2A and 3A, in FIG. 4A and in response to a detectedselection of the messaging thread control 210 including the missedmessages indicator 212, the messaging application provides the messagingthread GUI 214 on the touch screen display 204 of the client-computingdevice 202. Similar to FIGS. 2B and 3B, the messaging thread GUI 214 inFIG. 4B includes the group messaging thread 216 of electronic messages(e.g., the electronic messages 218 a-218 d) exchanged between theparticipants in the group messaging thread 216.

Further illustrated in FIG. 4B, in one or more embodiments, themessaging application provides the last read position bar 220 directlyadjacent to the last electronic message read by the user of theclient-computing device 202 (e.g., the electronic message 218 d). Asdescribed above with reference to FIGS. 2B and 3B, the messagingapplication determines when the user of the client-computing device 202becomes absent from the group messaging thread 216 and identifies one ormore electronic messages added to the group messaging thread 216 byother group messaging thread participants during the period of absencecorresponding to the user of the client-computing device 202. Themessaging application then calculates a score for each added electronicmessage and identifies one or more highlight messages based on thecalculated scores.

In one or more embodiments, the last read position bar 220 isselectable. For example, in response to detecting a selection of thelast read position bar 220, the messaging application replaces themessaging thread GUI 214 with another GUI dedicated to highlightmessages. For instance, as shown in FIG. 4C, in response to detecting aselection of the last read position bar 220, the messaging applicationreplaces the messaging thread GUI 214 with the general highlight GUI232. As shown in FIG. 4C, the messaging application can replace themessaging thread GUI 214 with the general highlight GUI 232 via aslide-over animation. Alternatively, the messaging application canreplace the messaging thread GUI 214 with the general highlight GUI 232via other types of animation (e.g., a fade-out/fade-in).

As illustrated in FIG. 4D, the general highlight GUI 232 includes alisting of highlight messages 238 a, 238 b, and 238 c. In one or moreembodiments, the messaging application copies each of the highlightmessages 238 a-238 c from the group messaging thread 216 in response todetermining that each highlight message 238 a-238 c has a highcalculated score. Additionally, in at least one embodiment, themessaging application positions each highlight message 238 a-238 c inthe general highlight GUI 232 based on the calculated scores associatedwith each corresponding highlight message. For example, the calculatedscore for the highlight message 238 a may be higher than the scores forthe electronic messages associated with the highlight messages 238 b and238 c. In an alternative embodiment, the messaging application positionseach highlight message 238 a-238 c in the general highlight GUI 232based on the rank associated with each corresponding electronic message.For example, the rank for the electronic message associated with thehighlight message 238 a may be higher than the scores for the electronicmessages associated with the highlight messages 238 b and 238 c.

As shown in FIG. 4D, the general highlight GUI 232 includes highlightmessages from several categories of electronic messages. For example,the highlight message 238 a is associated with a media electronicmessage. Further, the highlight message 238 b is associated with anevent electronic message, and the highlight message 238 c is associatedwith a mention electronic message. In additional or alternativeembodiments, the messaging application can provide additional graphicaluser interfaces including specific categories of highlight messages. Forexample, in one or more embodiments, in response to detected userinteraction with the general highlight GUI 232 (e.g., a swipe-left touchgesture), the messaging application replaces the general highlight GUI232 with the category highlight GUI 234, as shown in FIG. 4E. As shownin FIG. 4E, the category highlight GUI 234 includes the highlightmessages 238 a, 238 d, and 238 e, each associated with a mediaelectronic message.

In one or more embodiments, the messaging application provides adifferent types of category highlight GUIs in response to a detecteduser interaction with the general highlight GUI 232. For example, in oneembodiment, in response to detecting a swipe-left touch gesture with thegeneral highlight GUI 232, the messaging application provides thecategory highlight GUI 234 including highlight messages associated withmention electronic messages. In one or more embodiments, in response todetecting repeated left-swipes, the messaging application providesadditional GUIs including further categories of highlight excerpts.

In at least one embodiment, the messaging application provides thecategories of highlight messages based on factors associated with theuser of the client-computing device 202. For example, the electroniccommunication system 100 can analyze the user's activity historyrelative to the electronic messaging system 108 to determine the typesof highlight messages the user interacts with most frequently.Accordingly, the messaging application can provide the categoryhighlight GUI 234 including highlight messages associated withelectronic messages with which the user is most likely to interact.

In response to a detected selection of a highlight message, themessaging application navigates the group messaging thread 216 to ahighlight message associated with the selected highlight excerpt. Forexample, in response to a detected selection of the highlight message238 d, the messaging application navigates the group messaging thread216 to the highlight message 226 d within the messaging thread GUI 214,as shown in FIG. 4F. In one or more embodiments, the messagingapplication also provides the last read position bar 220 directlyadjacent to the highlight message 226 d and updates the last readposition bar 220 to reflect the user's current position in the groupmessaging thread 216 as well as the number of remaining unread highlightmessages. In at least one embodiment, the messaging application providesthe general highlight GUI 232 in response to another selection of thelast read position bar 220.

Turning now to FIG. 5, additional detail is provided regardingcomponents and capabilities of the electronic communication system 100in accordance with one or more embodiments. In particular, FIG. 5illustrates a schematic diagram of another example embodiment of theelectronic communication system 100. As shown in FIG. 5, the electroniccommunication system 100 includes various components for performing theprocesses and features described herein. For example, as shown in FIG.5, the electronic communication system 100 includes but is not limitedto, the client-computing device 102 and the server(s) 106 hosting asocial networking system 518 and the electronic messaging system 108.Further illustrated in FIG. 5, the social networking system 518 includesa social graph 520 with node information 522 and edge information 524.Also illustrated in FIG. 4, the electronic messaging system 108 includesthe thread manager 526 and data storage 528 including electronicmessaging data 530. Additionally, the client-computing device 102includes the social networking system application 502, the electronicmessaging system application 104 including the activity tracker 504 andthe highlight manager 506, the display manager 508, the user inputdetector 510, and the data storage 512 including social networkingsystem data 514 and electronic messaging system data 516.

In at least one embodiment, the electronic communication system 100accesses the social networking system 518 in order to identify andanalyze social networking system user data. Accordingly, as shown inFIG. 5, the social networking system 518 includes the social graph 520for representing a plurality of users, actions, and concepts. Forexample, in one or more embodiments, the social graph 520 is accessibleby the social networking system 518 and the electronic messaging system108. In one or more embodiments, the social graph 520 includes nodeinformation 522 and edge information 524. Node information 522 of thesocial graph 520 stores information including, for example, nodes forusers and nodes for repositories. Edge information 524 of the socialgraph 520 stores information including relationship between nodes and/oractions occurring within the social networking system 518. Furtherdetails regarding the social networking system 518, the social graph520, edges, and nodes are presented below with respect to FIG. 12.

Each of the components 104 and 502-512 of the client-computing device102, the components 520 of the social networking system 518, and thecomponents 526-528 of the electronic messaging system 108 can beimplemented using a computing device including at least one processorexecuting instructions that cause the electronic communication system100 to perform the processes described herein. In some embodiments, thecomponents of the electronic communication system 100 can be implementedby the server(s) 106, or across multiple server devices. Additionally oralternatively, a combination of one or more server devices and one ormore client devices can implement the components of the electroniccommunication system 100. Additionally or alternatively, the componentsof the electronic communication system 100 can comprise a combination ofcomputer-executable instructions and hardware.

In one or more embodiments, the social networking system application 502and/or the electronic messaging system application 104 (e.g., themessaging application described with reference to FIGS. 2A-4F) arenative applications installed on the client-computing device 102. Forexample, the social networking system application 502 and/or theelectronic messaging system application 104 can be mobile applicationsthat install and run on a mobile device, such as a smart phone or tabletcomputer. Alternatively, the social networking system application 502and/or the electronic messaging system application 104 can be desktopapplications, widgets, or other forms of a native computer programs.Furthermore, the social networking system application 502 and/or theelectronic messaging system application 104 may be remote applicationsaccessed by the client-computing device 102. For example, the socialnetworking system application 502 and/or the electronic messaging systemapplication 104 may be web applications that are executed within a webbrowser of the client-computing device 102.

In one or more embodiments, the social networking system application 502provides graphical user interfaces and interactive display elements thatenable the user of the client-computing device 102 to interact with thesocial networking system 518. For example, the social networking systemapplication 502 enables the user of the client-computing device 102 toview and compose social networking system posts, submit comments, “Like”posts and digital media, and so forth. Accordingly, the socialnetworking system application 502 provides and receives information toand from the social networking system 518 hosted by the server(s) 106.

As mentioned above, and as shown in FIG. 5, the client-computing device102 also includes the electronic messaging system application 104 (e.g.,the electronic messaging system application 104 a, 104 b, or 104 cillustrated in FIG. 1). In one or more embodiments, the electronicmessaging system application 104 provides access to features of theelectronic communication system 100, as well as to features of theelectronic messaging system 108.

As further shown in FIG. 5, the electronic messaging system application104 includes the activity tracker 504. In one or more embodiments, theactivity tracker 504 monitors the usage and activity rate associatedwith the electronic messaging system application 104. For example, inone or more embodiments, the activity tracker 504 detects and monitorshow the user of the client-computing device 102 utilizes the electronicmessaging system application 104. To illustrate, the activity tracker504 detects how often the user of the client-computing device 102accesses the electronic messaging system application 104, the types ofmessaging threads with which the user interacts (e.g., group messagingthreads, two-person messaging thread, messaging threads including acommercial business entity), the types of messaging thread conversationsthe user engages with most frequently (e.g., conversations planning anevent, conversations discussing politics, conversations sharing mediaitems), how long the user's absences from group messaging threads last,whether and how often the user interacts with highlight messages, andthe types of highlight messages with which the user interacts mostfrequently.

Additionally, in one or more embodiments, the activity tracker 504determines when the user of the client-computing device 102 becomesabsent from a particular group messaging thread. For example, in atleast one embodiment, the activity tracker 504 constantly monitors theuser's interactions with the group messaging thread. When the user stopsinteracting with the group messaging thread for a threshold amount oftime, the activity tracker 504 determines that the user's period ofabsence has begun. More specifically, the activity tracker 504determines a timestamp associated with each of the user's interactionswith the group messaging thread. When the activity tracker 504 fails todetermine a user interaction timestamp for a threshold amount of time(e.g., one minute, 5 minutes, 30 minutes), the activity tracker 504determines that the user's period of absence began at the lastdetermined timestamp. When the user next accesses and/or interacts withthe group messaging thread, the activity tracker 504 determines atimestamp associated with this new activity. In one or more embodiments,the activity tracker 504 determines that the user's period of absenceincludes the time in-between the timestamp at the beginning of theuser's period of absence and the timestamp at the end of the user'speriod of absence.

As shown in FIG. 5, and as mentioned above, the electronic messagingsystem application 104 further includes a highlight manager 506. In oneor more embodiments, the highlight manager 506 handles all activitiesinvolved in identifying and providing highlight messages to the user ofthe client-computing device 102. For example, in one or moreembodiments, the highlight manager 506 identifies all electronicmessages submitted to a group messaging thread during a period ofabsence associated with the user of the client-computing device 102. Asdiscussed above, the activity tracker 504 determines starting and endingtimestamps associated with the user's period of absence from a groupmessaging thread. Accordingly, in at least one embodiment, the highlightmanager 506 identifies all electronic messages submitted to the groupmessaging thread during the user's period of absence by identifying allelectronic messages in the stack associated with the group messagingthread that are associated with a timestamp that falls in-between thestarting and ending timestamps associated with the user's period ofabsence.

After identifying all electronic messages in the group messaging threadthat were submitted by other participants during the user's period ofabsence, the highlight manager 506 calculates a score for eachidentified electronic message based on characteristics associated withthe electronic message and characteristics associated with the user ofthe client-computing device 102. For example, in one or moreembodiments, the highlight manager 506 determines characteristicsassociated with an electronic message by analyzing the contents of theelectronic message. For instance, the highlight manager 506 can analyzedigital media items included in an electronic message to determine atype associated with the digital media (e.g., digital photograph ordigital video), and to determine what is depicted by the digital media(e.g., by performing image analysis and/or metadata analysis).

Furthermore, the highlight manager 506 determines characteristicsassociated with an electronic message by analyzing text associated withthe electronic message. For example, the highlight manager 506 cananalyze text associated with the electronic message to identify aquestion within the text, event information within the text, a hyperlinkwithin the text, or a mention of the user of the client-computing device102 within the text. In one or more embodiments, the highlight manager506 utilizes one or more techniques including natural languageprocessing, machine learning, grammars, databases, and social networkingsystem information analysis in order to analyze the text associated withan electronic message.

In one or more embodiments, the highlight manager 506 further determinescharacteristics associated with an electronic message by analyzingsurrounding electronic message activity. For example, in at least oneembodiment, the level of group engagement corresponding to an electronicmessage is a characteristic that can affect the score calculated forthat electronic message. Accordingly, the highlight manager 506 cananalyze surrounding electronic message activity by identifyingelectronic messages that immediately preceding (e.g., leading up to) theelectronic message being analyzed, as well as electronic messages thatimmediately follow the electronic message being analyzed. In oneembodiment, the highlight manager 506 identifies a predefined number ofpreceding and succeeding electronic messages. Alternatively, thehighlight manager 506 can identify a number of preceding and succeedingelectronic messages that represent a predefined percentage of the entiregroup messaging thread.

With a number of preceding and succeeding electronic messagesidentified, in one or more embodiments, the highlight manager 506analyzes timestamps associated with the preceding and succeedingelectronic messages relative to the electronic message being analyzed todetermine how the analysis electronic message affected the level ofgroup engagement. For example, the highlight manager 506 can analyze thetimestamps associated with the preceding and succeeding electronicmessages relative to the analysis electronic message to determinewhether an increase in the rate of messaging followed the analysiselectronic message, whether an increase in the number of messages perminute followed the analysis electronic message, or whether the analysiselectronic message engaged group messaging thread participants after alull (e.g., a long pause in the submission of electronic messages to thegroup messaging thread). In at least one embodiment, thesecharacteristics indicate that the analysis electronic message introduceda new topic, triggered or reinvigorated the current conversation.

The highlight manager 506 can also analyze the contents of preceding andsucceeding electronic messages relative to the analysis electronicmessage to determine whether an increase in message length followed theanalysis electronic message. For example, if the message lengthassociated with the electronic messages that succeeding the analysiselectronic message increases, the highlight manager 506 may determinethat the analysis electronic message likely caused an increase in groupengagement.

In one or more embodiments, the highlight manager 506 further determinescharacteristics associated with an electronic message by analyzing theelectronic message relative to the user of the client-computing device102. For example, in at least one embodiment, the highlight manager 506accesses social networking system information (e.g., via the socialnetworking system application 502, or directly from the socialnetworking system 518). From this information, the highlight manager 506can determine the user's interests, occupation, and demographicinformation, as well as relationship coefficients the user shares withother social networking system users. In at least one embodiment, thehighlight manager 506 can utilize the social networking systeminformation to determine whether the user of the client-computing device102 shares a relationship coefficient with the sender of an electronicmessages via the social networking system 518. Thus, if an identifiedrelationship coefficient between the user of the client-computing device102 and the sender of an electronic message is sufficiently high (e.g.,higher than a predetermined threshold), the highlight manager 506 candetermine that the identified relationship coefficient is acharacteristic of the electronic message.

After identifying one or more characteristics of an electronic message,the highlight manager 506 calculates a score for the electronic messagebased on the identified one or more characteristics. For example, in atleast one embodiment, the highlight manager 506 assigns a weightedscalar value to each identified characteristic and calculates the scorefor the electronic message by summing the weighted scalar values. In oneor more embodiments, the highlight manager 506 weights the scalar valuesbased the importance of various characteristics. For example, anidentified mention of the user of the client-computing device 102 in anelectronic message is a characteristic that the highlight manager 506may weight heavier than a digital photograph being included in theelectronic message.

After calculating scores for each electronic message that was submittedto the group messaging thread during the period of absence associatedwith the user of the client-computing device 102, the highlight manager506 identifies one or more highlight messages among the scoredelectronic messages. In one or more embodiments, the highlight manager506 identifies one or more highlight messages by identifying electronicmessages with a calculated score above a predetermined threshold.Additionally or alternatively, the highlight manager 506 can identifyone or more highlight messages by identifying a top percentage of scoredelectronic messages. Additionally or alternatively, the highlightmanager 506 can identify one or more highlight messages by identifying atop number of scored electronic messages.

In one or more embodiments, the highlight manager 506 also categorizesidentified highlight messages. As discussed above, in some embodiments,the electronic communication system 100 provides identified highlightmessages to the user of the client-computing device 102 in categories.For example, as shown in FIG. 4D, the electronic communication system100 provides the category highlight GUI including excerpts associatedwith all identified media highlight messages. Thus, in one or moreembodiments, the highlight manager 506 categorizes identified highlightmessages by determining a type associated with each highlight messagebased on the characteristics discussed above. For example, if ahighlight message is associated with a characteristic indicating thehighlight message includes a digital media item, the highlight manager506 categorizes that highlight message as a media highlight message.Similarly, if a highlight message is associated with a characteristicindicating the highlight message includes a mention of the user of theclient-computing device 102, the highlight manager 506 categorizes thathighlight message as a mention highlight message. In one or moreembodiments, the highlight manager 506 categorizes highlight messagesinto categories including, but not limited to, media, mention,hyperlink, event, audio, and interests.

In one or more embodiments, the highlight manager 506 also ranksidentified highlight messages. As described above, the electroniccommunication system 100 presents identified highlight messages to theuser of the client-computing device 102 simply based on each highlightmessages' calculated score. Alternatively, also as described above, theelectronic communication system 100 can present identified highlightmessages in a ranked order based on additional considerations.Accordingly, in one or more embodiments, the highlight manager 506 ranksthe identified highlight messages based on one or more of the scoresassociated with the identified highlight messages, social networkingsystem information associated with the user of the client-computingdevice 102, or electronic messaging system information associated withthe user of the client-computing device 102.

For example, the highlight manager 506 can rank the identified highlightmessages based on the scores associated with the identified highlightmessages by simply assigning the highest rank to the highest scoredhighlight message, and so forth in descending order. Additionally oralternatively, the highlight manager 506 can rank the identifiedhighlight messages based on social networking system informationassociated with the user of the client-computing device 102 by analyzingsocial networking system information associated with the user toidentify the user's activities, interests, demographic information, andrelationships. In at least one embodiment, the highlight manager 506 canassign the highest rank to an identified highlight message with thestrongest association with the user's social networking systeminformation, and so forth in descending order. Additionally oralternatively, the highlight manager 506 can rank the identifiedhighlight messages based on electronic messaging system informationassociated with the user of the client-computing device 102 by analyzingelectronic messaging system information to identify communicationthreads with which the user frequently interacts, types of highlightmessages with which the user frequently interacts, and types ofhighlight excerpts with which the user frequently interacts. In at leastone embodiment, the highlight manager 506 can assign the highest rank tothe identified highlight message with the strongest association with theuser's electronic messaging system information, and so forth indescending order.

Furthermore, in one or more embodiments, the highlight manager 506generates highlight excerpts associated with each of the identifiedhighlight messages. As described above, in some embodiments and in orderto save display space and reduce visual clutter, the electronicmessaging system application 104 presents highlight excerpts rather thanthe full highlight messages. Accordingly, the highlight manager 506generates a highlight excerpt associated with a highlight message byincluding within the highlight excerpt with the most relevant portionsof the highlight message. For example, if the highlight message includesa digital media item, the highlight manager 506 can extract the digitalmedia item for inclusion in the associated highlight excerpt. Similarly,if the highlight message includes only text, the highlight manager 506extracts the most relevant portion of the text for inclusion in theassociated highlight excerpt. In at least one embodiment, the highlightmanager 506 can include an interactive element in a highlight excerpt.For example, if the highlight excerpt includes the text of a questiondirected at the user of the client-computing device 102, the highlightmanager 506 can include a selectable link or button in the associatedhighlight excerpt that, when selected, automatically populates a textbox with a mention of the sender of the highlight message. Furthermore,the highlight manager 506 includes a highlight message's group messagethread identifier as part of the associated highlight excerpt.

Additionally, the highlight manager 506 presents identified highlightmessages and/or highlight excerpts to the user of the client-computingdevice 102. For example, as described above, in one embodiment, thehighlight manager 506 generates and provides a selectable displayelement (e.g., the highlight message control 222 as shown in FIG. 2B)based on identified highlight messages. In another embodiment, thehighlight manager 506 generates and provides a horizontally scrollabledisplay (e.g., the horizontal scroll display 228 as shown in FIG. 3B)including generated highlight excerpts associated with identifiedhighlight messages. In a further embodiment, the highlight manager 506generates and provides one or more highlight interfaces (e.g., thegeneral highlight GUI 232 as shown in FIG. 4D or the category highlightGUI 234 as shown in FIG. 4E) including generated highlight excerptsassociated with identified highlight messages.

In one or more embodiments, the highlight manager 506 determines whichdisplay of highlight messages and/or highlight excerpts to provide tothe user of the client-computing device 102. For example, as describedabove, the electronic communication system 100 can include differentbuttons in different orders within the highlight message control 222 asshown in FIG. 2B. Furthermore, the electronic communication system 100can provide various category highlight GUIs (e.g. the category highlightGUI 234 as shown in FIG. 4E) in various orders. Accordingly, in one ormore embodiments, the highlight manager 506 analyzes electronicmessaging system information associated with the user of theclient-computing device 102 in order to determine which types orcategories of highlight messages and highlight excerpts with which theuser most frequently interacts. Furthermore, by analyzing the user'selectronic messaging system information, the highlight manager 506 candetermine whether to provide a selectable display element (e.g., asdescribed with reference to FIGS. 2A-2E), a horizontally scrollabledisplay (e.g., as described with reference to FIGS. 3A-3E), oradditional graphical user interfaces (e.g., as described with referenceto FIGS. 4A-4F).

Additionally, the highlight manager 506 navigates to a highlight messagewithin the group messaging thread in response to a detected userinteraction with a selectable display element (e.g., as described withreference to FIGS. 2A-2E), a horizontally scrollable display (e.g., asdescribed with reference to FIGS. 3A-3E), or additional graphical userinterfaces (e.g., as described with reference to FIGS. 4A-4F). Forexample, the electronic messaging system 108 assigns a thread identifierto each electronic message in a communication thread. In one or moreembodiments, an electronic message's thread identifier provides theelectronic message's display position within the communication thread.Accordingly, in response to a detected selection of a button within theselectable display element (e.g., as described with reference to FIGS.2A-2E), or a detected selection of a highlight excerpt (e.g., asdescribed with reference to FIGS. 3A-3E, or as described with referenceto FIGS. 4A-4F), the highlight manager 506 navigates the groupcommunication thread to a display position associated with the groupmessaging thread identifier referenced in the selected highlight messageor highlight excerpt.

As mentioned above, and as shown in FIG. 5, the client-computing device102 includes the display manager 508. In one or more embodiments, thedisplay manager 508 interacts with both the social networking systemapplication 502 and the electronic messaging system application 104. Thedisplay manager 508 provides, manages, and/or controls graphical userinterfaces that allow a user to interact with the electroniccommunication system 100. For example, the display manager 508 providesa graphical user interface that facilitates the display of a socialnetworking system user's newsfeed. Similarly, the display manager 508provides a graphical user interface that displays the contents of agroup messaging thread (e.g., the group communication thread 216).

More specifically, the display manager 508 facilitates the display of agraphical user interface (e.g., by way of a touch screen displayassociated with the client-computing device 102). For example, thedisplay manager 508 may compose the graphical user interface of aplurality of graphical components, objects, and/or elements that allow auser to view and interact with communication threads. Further, thedisplay manager 508 directs the client-computing device 102 to displayone or more graphical objects, controls, or elements that facilitateuser input for interacting with communication threads. For example, inone or more embodiments, the display manager 508 provides a graphicaluser interface that includes a touch screen keyboard.

Additionally, the display manager 508 is capable of transitioningbetween two or more graphical user interfaces and/or applications. Forexample, in one embodiment, the display manager 508 provides a newsfeedto the user of the client-computing device 102 within the socialnetworking system application 502, containing one or more socialnetworking system posts from co-users associated with the user via thesocial networking system 518. Later, in response to a detected input,the display manager 508 transitions to a second graphical user interfacewithin the electronic messaging system application 104 that includes alisting of one or more communication threads. Alternatively, in responseto a detected input, the display manager 508 transitions withingraphical user interfaces provided by the same application.

As further illustrated in FIG. 5, the client-computing device 102includes a user input detector 510. As with the display manager 508, inone or more embodiments, the user input detector 510 interacts with boththe social networking system application 502 and the electronicmessaging system application 104. In one or more embodiments, the userinput detector 510 detects, receives, and/or facilitates user input inany suitable manner. In some examples, the user input detector 510detects one or more user interactions with a graphical user interface.As referred to herein, a “user interaction” means a single interaction,or combination of interactions, received from a user by way of one ormore input devices.

For example, the user input detector 510 detects a user interaction froma keyboard, mouse, touch pad, touch screen, and/or any other inputdevice. In the event the client-computing device 102 includes a touchscreen, the user input detector 510 detects one or more touch gestures(e.g., swipe gestures, tap gestures, pinch gestures, reverse pinchgestures, etc.) from a user that forms a user interaction. In someexamples, a user can provide the touch gestures in relation to and/ordirected at one or more graphical objects or graphical elements of agraphical user interface.

The user input detector 510 may additionally, or alternatively, receivedata representative of a user interaction. For example, the user inputdetector 510 may receive one or more user configurable parameters from auser, one or more commands from the user, and/or any other suitable userinput. The user input detector 510 may receive input data from one ormore components of the social networking system 518, from the electronicmessaging system 108, or from one or more remote locations.

The social networking system application 502 and/or the electronicmessaging system application 104 performs one or more functions inresponse to the user input detector 510 detecting user input and/orreceiving other data. Generally, a user can control, navigate within,and otherwise use the social networking system application 502 and/orthe electronic messaging system application 104 by providing one or moreuser input that the user input detector 510 can detect. For example, inresponse to the user input detector 510 detecting user input, one ormore components of the social networking system application 502 allow auser to scroll through a newsfeed, select a digital media item, orsubmit a comment to a post. Similarly, in response to the user inputdetector 510 detecting user input, one or more components of theelectronic messaging system application 104 allow a user to view amessaging thread list, select a messaging thread control, or interactwith a communication thread.

As shown in FIG. 5, and as mentioned above, the client-computing device102 includes the data storage 512. The data storage 512 includes socialnetworking system data 514 and electronic messaging system data 516. Inone or more embodiments, the social networking system data 514 isrepresentative of social networking system information, such asdescribed herein. In one or more embodiments, the electronic messagingsystem data 516 is representative of electronic messaging information,such as described herein.

As further shown in FIG. 5, and as mentioned above, the server(s) 106hosts the social networking system 518. The social networking system 518provides social networking system posts to one or more users of thesocial networking system 518 (e.g., by way of a profile, a newsfeed, atimeline, or a “wall”). For example, one or more embodiments provide auser with a social networking system newsfeed including posts from oneor more co-users associated with the user via the social networkingsystem 518. In one or more embodiments, the user scrolls through thesocial networking system newsfeed, interacting with posts and othercontent of interest.

Also shown in FIG. 5, the server(s) 106 supports the electronicmessaging system 108. As discussed above, the electronic messagingsystem 108 provides dedicated electronic messaging services to the usersof the electronic messaging system 108. For example, the electronicmessaging system 108 maintains a stack of communication threadsassociated with each electronic messaging system user. The electronicmessaging system 108 can add a communication thread (or electronicmessage) to a particular stack in order to make the communication threadavailable to the user associated with the stack, or can remove acommunication thread (or electronic message) from the stack in order tomake the communication thread (or electronic message) unavailable to theuser associated with the stack.

As shown in FIG. 5, the electronic messaging system 108 includes thethread manager 526. In one or more embodiments, the thread manager 526receives and directs electronic messages submitted by participants of acommunication thread. For example, in a group messaging thread betweenmultiple participants, a first participant may submit an electronicmessage to the electronic messaging system 108 for inclusion in thegroup messaging thread. Accordingly, the thread manager 526 receives thesubmitted electronic message and provides the electronic message to theother participants in the group messaging thread. In at least oneembodiment, the thread manager 526 provides a received electronicmessage to other messaging thread participants by adding the receivedelectronic message to a communication thread stack associated with eachof the other messaging thread participants.

Further shown in FIG. 5, and as mentioned above, the electronicmessaging system 108 includes the data storage 528. The data storage 528includes electronic messaging data 530. In one or more embodiments, theelectronic messaging data 530 is representative of electronic messaginginformation, such as described herein.

FIGS. 1-5, the corresponding text and examples, provide a number ofdifferent methods, systems, and devices for identifying and providingone or more highlight messages associated with a group messaging thread.In addition to the foregoing, embodiments can also be described in termsof flowcharts comprising acts and steps in a method for accomplishing aparticular result. For example, FIGS. 6-9 may be performed with less ormore steps/acts or the steps/acts may be performed in differing orders.Additionally, the steps/acts described herein may be repeated orperformed in parallel with one another or in parallel with differentinstances of the same or similar steps/acts.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of one example method 600 of identifyingone or more highlight messages in a group messaging thread. The method600 includes an act 610 of determining a period of time corresponding toa participant's absence from a group messaging thread. In particular,the act 610 can involve determining, for a group messaging threadcomprising a plurality of participants, a period of time correspondingto a participant's absence from the group messaging thread. For example,in order to determine the period of time corresponding to theparticipant's absence, the method 600 can further include an act ofdetermining that the participant has not been active within the groupmessaging thread for more than a threshold amount of time. Furthermore,the method 600 can also include an act of determining the period of timecorresponding to the participant's absence from the group messagingthread in response to the determination that the participant has notbeen active within the group messaging thread for more than thethreshold amount of time.

The method 600 also includes an act 620 of identifying electronicmessages added to the group messaging thread during the participant'sabsence. In particular, the act 620 can involve identifying a pluralityof electronic messages added to the group messaging thread during thedetermined period of time corresponding to the participant's absencefrom the group messaging thread. For example, in one or moreembodiments, identifying the plurality of electronic messages added tothe group messaging thread during the determined period of time includesidentifying a starting timestamp of the determined period of time and anending timestamp of the determined period of time, and identifying theplurality of electronic messages that have timestamps that fall inbetween the starting timestamp and the ending timestamp.

Furthermore, the method 600 includes an act 630 of calculating a scorefor each identified electronic message. In particular, the act 630 caninvolve calculating, for each of the identified plurality of electronicmessages, a score for the electronic message based on a plurality ofcharacteristics associated with the electronic message and with theparticipant. For example, in one or more embodiments, calculating thescore for the electronic message includes analyzing the electronicmessage to identify one or more digital media items within theelectronic message, and calculating the score for the electronic messagebased on the identified one or more digital media items. In additionalor alternative embodiments, calculating the score for the electronicmessage includes: analyzing text of the electronic message to identifyone or more of a question within the electronic message, eventinformation within the electronic message, a hyperlink within theelectronic message, or a mention of the participant within theelectronic message; and calculating the score for the electronic messagebased on the analysis of the text. In additional or alternativeembodiments, calculating the score for the electronic message includesdetermining a networking system coefficient between a sender of theelectronic message and the participant, and calculating the score forthe electronic message based on the determined networking systemcoefficient.

In additional or alternative embodiments, calculating the score for theelectronic message includes analyzing surrounding electronic messageactivity to determine a level of group engagement corresponding to theelectronic message, and calculating the score for the electronic messagebased on the surrounding electronic message activity analysis. Forexample, in at least one embodiment, analyzing the surroundingelectronic message activity to determine a level of group engagementincludes identifying a plurality of immediately preceding electronicmessages in the group messaging thread relative to the electronicmessage, identifying a plurality of succeeding electronic messages inthe group messaging thread relative to the electronic message,identifying timestamps associated with the plurality of immediatelypreceding electronic messages and with the plurality of succeedingelectronic messages, and determining the level of group engagement forthe electronic message based on the identified timestamps.

The method 600 further includes an act 640 of identifying highlightmessages based on the calculated scores. In particular, the act 640 caninvolve identifying, based on the calculated scores for the plurality ofelectronic messages, one or more highlight messages from the pluralityof electronic messages. For example, in one or more embodiments,identifying one or more highlight messages from the plurality ofelectronic messages includes identifying one or more electronic messageshaving a calculated score above a predetermined threshold.

Additionally, the method 600 further includes an act 650 of presentingthe identified highlight messages. In particular, the act 650 caninvolve, in response to the participant accessing the group messagingthread after the participant's absence from the group messaging thread,presenting the identified one or more highlight messages to theparticipant. For example, in one or more embodiments, presenting theidentified one or more highlight messages to the participant is inresponse to detecting a selection of a display element associated withthe one or more highlight messages.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of one example method 700 of providingidentified highlight messages to a group messaging thread participant.The method 700 includes an act 710 of determining a period of absencefor a participant of a group messaging thread. In particular, the act710 can involve determining, for a group messaging thread comprising aplurality of participants, a period of time corresponding to aparticipant's absence from the group messaging thread.

The method 700 also includes an act 720 of identifying highlightmessages added to the group messaging thread during the period ofabsence. In particular, the act 720 can involve identifying one or morehighlight messages from messages added to the group messaging threadduring the determined period of time corresponding to the participant'sabsence from the group messaging thread. For example, identifying one ormore highlight messages includes calculating a score for each of theplurality of electronic messages corresponding to the participant'sabsence from the group messaging thread, and determining electronicmessages with a calculated score higher than a threshold score arehighlight messages. In one or more embodiments, calculating the scorefor each of the plurality of electronic messages is based on one or moreof a digital media item in each electronic message, a question withineach electronic message, a hyperlink within each electronic message,event information within each electronic message, a mention of theparticipant within each electronic message, message activity surroundingeach electronic message, or a networking system coefficient between theparticipant and a sender of each electronic message.

Furthermore, the method 700 includes an act 730 of providing aselectable display element for accessing the highlight message. Inparticular, the act 730 can involve, in response to the participantaccessing the group messaging thread after the participant's absencefrom the group messaging thread, providing a selectable display elementfor accessing the one or more highlight messages within a graphical userinterface for the group messaging thread, the selectable display elementbeing positioned adjacent to the participant's last-read electronicmessage in the group messaging thread. For example, providing theselectable display element for accessing the one or more highlightmessages can include determining a type associated with each of the oneor more highlight messages, and configuring the selectable displayelement to indicate a number of each determined type of highlightmessage.

The method 700 also includes an act 740 of navigating to a firsthighlight message in the group messaging thread. In particular, the act740 can involve, in response to a detected selection of the selectabledisplay element, navigating, within the graphical user interface for thegroup messaging thread, to a first highlight message of the one or morehighlight messages. For example, in one or more embodiments, navigatingto the first highlight message of the one or more highlight messagesincludes identifying a group message thread identifier associated withthe first of the one or more highlight messages, and navigating, withinthe graphical user interface for the group messaging thread, to theidentified group message thread identifier.

In one or more embodiments, the method 700 further includes, in responseto navigating to the first highlight message, repositioning theselectable display element within the graphical user interface for thegroup messaging thread, the selectable display element adjacent to thefirst highlight message. Additionally or alternatively, the method 700can also include, after detecting the selection of the selectabledisplay element and navigating to the first highlight message of the oneor more highlight messages: detecting a second selection of the displayelement, and navigating, within the graphical user interface for thegroup messaging thread, to a second highlight message of the one or morehighlight messages. In at least one embodiment, the method 700 includesan act of ranking the identified one or more highlight messages, whereinranking the identified one or more highlight messages is based on one ormore of the scores associated with the one or more highlight messages,networking system information associated with the participant, orelectronic messaging system information associated with the participant,wherein navigating to the first highlight message of the one or morehighlight messages comprises navigating to the highest ranked highlightmessage.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of one example method 800 of providingidentified highlight messages to a group messaging thread participant.The method 800 includes an act 810 of determining a period of absencefor a participant of a group messaging thread. In particular, the act810 can involve determining, for a group messaging thread comprising aplurality of participants, a period of time corresponding to aparticipant's absence from a group messaging thread.

The method 800 also includes an act 820 of identifying highlightmessages added to the group messaging thread during the period ofabsence. In particular, the act 820 can involve identifying one or morehighlight messages from messages added to the group messaging threadduring the determined period of time corresponding to the participant'sabsence from the group messaging thread. For example, in one or moreembodiments, identifying one or more highlight messages includescalculating a score for each of the plurality of electronic messagescorresponding to the participant's absence from the group messagingthread, and determining electronic messages with a calculated scorehigher than a threshold score are highlight messages. In at least oneembodiment, calculating the score for each of the plurality ofelectronic messages is based on one or more of a digital media item ineach electronic message, a hyperlink within each electronic message, aquestion within each electronic message, event information within eachelectronic message, a mention of the participant within each electronicmessage, message activity surrounding each electronic message, or anetworking system coefficient between the participant and a sender ofeach electronic message.

Furthermore, the method 800 includes an act 830 of providing ahorizontally scrollable display including highlight excerpts associatedwith the highlight messages. In particular, the act 830 can involve inresponse to the participant accessing the group messaging thread afterthe participant's absence from the group messaging thread, providing ahorizontally scrollable display below a last electronic message accessedby the participant within a graphical user interface for the groupmessaging thread, the horizontally scrollable display comprising one ormore highlight excerpts associated with the identified one or morehighlight messages. For example, in one or more embodiments, providingthe horizontally scrollable display comprising one or more highlightexcerpts associated with the identified one or more highlight messagesincludes, for each identified highlight message, generating a highlightexcerpt based on one or more of a media item from the highlight message,a text from the highlight message, or a hyperlink from the highlightmessage. In at least one embodiment, generating a highlight excerptfurther includes: identifying a group messaging thread identifierassociated with the highlight message, and associating the identifiedgroup messaging thread identifier with the highlight excerpt.

The method 800 further includes an act 840 of navigating to a highlightmessage in the group messaging thread. In particular, the act 840 caninvolve, in response to a detected selection of a highlight excerpt inthe horizontally scrollable display, navigating, within the graphicaluser interface for the group messaging thread, to a highlight messageassociated with the selected highlight excerpt. For example, navigatingto the highlight message associated with the selected highlight excerptcan include navigating, within the graphical user interface for thegroup messaging thread, to the group messaging thread identifierassociated with the selected highlight excerpt.

In one or more embodiments, the method 800 further includes an act ofranking the one or more highlight excerpts based on one or more of thescores associated with the one or more highlight messages, networkingsystem information associated with the participant, or electronicmessaging system information associated with the participant. The method800 can also include an act of positioning the one or more highlightexcerpts in the horizontally scrollable display based on the ranking.Moreover, in at least one embodiment, the method 800 includes an act of,in response to navigating to the highlight message associated with theselected highlight excerpt: removing the selected highlight excerpt fromthe horizontally scrollable display, and providing the horizontallyscrollable display below the highlight message corresponding to theselected highlight excerpt within the graphical user interface for thegroup messaging thread.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart of one example method 900 of providingidentified highlight messages to a group messaging thread participant.The method 900 includes an act 910 of determining a period of absencefor a participant of a group messaging thread. In particular, the act910 can involve determining, for a group messaging thread comprising aplurality of participants, a period of time corresponding to aparticipant's absence from a group messaging thread.

The method 900 also includes an act 920 of identifying highlightmessages added to the group messaging thread during the period ofabsence. In particular, the act 920 can involve identifying one or morehighlight messages from messages added to the group messaging threadduring the determined period of time corresponding to the participant'sabsence from the group messaging thread. For example, in one or moreembodiments, identifying one or more highlight messages includes:calculating a score for each of the plurality of electronic messagescorresponding to the participant's absence from the group messagingthread, and determining electronic messages with a calculated scorehigher than a threshold score are highlight messages. In at least oneembodiment, calculating the score for each of the plurality ofelectronic messages is based on one or more of a digital media item ineach electronic message, a question within each electronic message, ahyperlink within each electronic message, event information within eachelectronic message, a mention of the participant within each electronicmessage, message activity surrounding each electronic message, or anetworking system coefficient between the participant and a sender ofeach electronic message.

Furthermore, the method 900 includes an act 930 of providing a highlightinterface including highlight messages. In particular, the act 930 caninvolve, in response to the participant selecting a highlight controlassociated with the one or more highlight messages displayed within agraphical user interface including the group messaging thread, providinga highlight message interface including the one or more highlightmessages. For example, in one or more embodiments, providing thehighlight interface including one or more highlight messages includes,for each of the identified highlight message displayed within thegraphical user interface including the group messaging thread,generating an associated highlight message based on one or more of amedia item from the highlight message displayed within the graphicaluser interface, text from the highlight message displayed within thegraphical user interface, or a hyperlink from the highlight messagedisplayed within the graphical user interface. In at least oneembodiment, generating an associated highlight message further includes:identifying a group messaging thread identifier associated with thehighlight message displayed within the graphical user interface, andassociating the identified group messaging thread identifier with theassociated highlight message.

The method 900 further includes an act 940 of navigating to a highlightmessage in the group messaging thread. In particular, the act 940 caninvolve, in response to a detected selection of a highlight messagewithin the highlight interface, navigating, within the graphical userinterface for the group messaging thread, to the selected highlightmessage. For example, in one or more embodiments, navigating to thehighlight message associated with the selected highlight message fromthe highlight message interface comprises navigating, within thegraphical user interface for the group messaging thread, to the groupmessaging thread identifier associated with the selected highlightmessage from the highlight message interface. In at least oneembodiment, the method 900 further includes, in response to navigatingto the highlight message in the group messaging thread associated withthe selected highlight message from the highlight message interface,removing the selected highlight message from the highlight messageinterface.

In one or more embodiments, the method 900 can include an act of rankingthe one or more highlight messages in the highlight message interfacebased on one or more of the scores associated with the one or morehighlight messages from the group messaging thread, social networkingsystem information associated with the participant, or electronicmessaging system information associated with the participant. The method900 can also include an act of positioning the one or more highlightmessages in the highlight message interface based on the ranking.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may comprise or utilize a specialpurpose or general-purpose computer including computer hardware, suchas, for example, one or more processors and system memory, as discussedin greater detail below. Embodiments within the scope of the presentdisclosure also include physical and other computer-readable media forcarrying or storing computer-executable instructions and/or datastructures. In particular, one or more of the processes described hereinmay be implemented at least in part as instructions embodied in anon-transitory computer-readable medium and executable by one or morecomputing devices (e.g., any of the media content access devicesdescribed herein). In general, a processor (e.g., a microprocessor)receives instructions, from a non-transitory computer-readable medium,(e.g., a memory, etc.), and executes those instructions, therebyperforming one or more processes, including one or more of the processesdescribed herein.

Computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessedby a general purpose or special purpose computer system.Computer-readable media that store computer-executable instructions arenon-transitory computer-readable storage media (devices).Computer-readable media that carry computer-executable instructions aretransmission media. Thus, by way of example, and not limitation,embodiments of the disclosure can comprise at least two distinctlydifferent kinds of computer-readable media: non-transitorycomputer-readable storage media (devices) and transmission media.

Non-transitory computer-readable storage media (devices) includes RAM,ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM, solid state drives (“SSDs”) (e.g., based on RAM),Flash memory, phase-change memory (“PCM”), other types of memory, otheroptical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storagedevices, or any other medium which can be used to store desired programcode means in the form of computer-executable instructions or datastructures and which can be accessed by a general purpose or specialpurpose computer.

A “network” is defined as one or more data links that enable thetransport of electronic data between computer systems and/or modulesand/or other electronic devices. When information is transferred orprovided over a network or another communications connection (eitherhardwired, wireless, or a combination of hardwired or wireless) to acomputer, the computer properly views the connection as a transmissionmedium. Transmissions media can include a network and/or data linkswhich can be used to carry desired program code means in the form ofcomputer-executable instructions or data structures and which can beaccessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. Combinationsof the above should also be included within the scope ofcomputer-readable media.

Further, upon reaching various computer system components, program codemeans in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structurescan be transferred automatically from transmission media tonon-transitory computer-readable storage media (devices) (or viceversa). For example, computer-executable instructions or data structuresreceived over a network or data link can be buffered in RAM within anetwork interface module (e.g., a “NIC”), and then eventuallytransferred to computer system RAM and/or to less volatile computerstorage media (devices) at a computer system. Thus, it should beunderstood that non-transitory computer-readable storage media (devices)can be included in computer system components that also (or evenprimarily) utilize transmission media.

Computer-executable instructions comprise, for example, instructions anddata which, when executed at a processor, cause a general-purposecomputer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing deviceto perform a certain function or group of functions. In someembodiments, computer-executable instructions are executed on ageneral-purpose computer to turn the general-purpose computer into aspecial purpose computer implementing elements of the disclosure. Thecomputer executable instructions may be, for example, binaries,intermediate format instructions such as assembly language, or evensource code. Although the subject matter has been described in languagespecific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to beunderstood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the described features or acts described above.Rather, the described features and acts are disclosed as example formsof implementing the claims.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the disclosure may bepracticed in network computing environments with many types of computersystem configurations, including, personal computers, desktop computers,laptop computers, message processors, hand-held devices, multi-processorsystems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics,network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, mobile telephones,PDAs, tablets, pagers, routers, switches, and the like. The disclosuremay also be practiced in distributed system environments where local andremote computer systems, which are linked (either by hardwired datalinks, wireless data links, or by a combination of hardwired andwireless data links) through a network, both perform tasks. In adistributed system environment, program modules may be located in bothlocal and remote memory storage devices.

Embodiments of the present disclosure can also be implemented in cloudcomputing environments. In this description, “cloud computing” isdefined as a model for enabling on-demand network access to a sharedpool of configurable computing resources. For example, cloud computingcan be employed in the marketplace to offer ubiquitous and convenienton-demand access to the shared pool of configurable computing resources.The shared pool of configurable computing resources can be rapidlyprovisioned via virtualization and released with low management effortor service provider interaction, and then scaled accordingly.

A cloud-computing model can be composed of various characteristics suchas, for example, on-demand self-service, broad network access, resourcepooling, rapid elasticity, measured service, and so forth. Acloud-computing model can also expose various service models, such as,for example, Software as a Service (“SaaS”), Platform as a Service(“PaaS”), and Infrastructure as a Service (“IaaS”). A cloud-computingmodel can also be deployed using different deployment models such asprivate cloud, community cloud, public cloud, hybrid cloud, and soforth. In this description and in the claims, a “cloud-computingenvironment” is an environment in which cloud computing is employed.

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of exemplary computing device 1000that may be configured to perform one or more of the processes describedabove. One will appreciate that one or more computing devices such asthe computing device 1000 may implement the electronic communicationsystem 100. As shown by FIG. 10, the computing device 1000 can comprisea processor 1002, a memory 1004, a storage device 1006, an I/O interface1008, and a communication interface 1010, which may be communicativelycoupled by way of a communication infrastructure 1012. While anexemplary computing device 1000 is shown in FIG. 10, the componentsillustrated in FIG. 10 are not intended to be limiting. Additional oralternative components may be used in other embodiments. Furthermore, incertain embodiments, the computing device 1000 can include fewercomponents than those shown in FIG. 10. Components of the computingdevice 1000 shown in FIG. 10 will now be described in additional detail.

In one or more embodiments, the processor 1002 includes hardware forexecuting instructions, such as those making up a computer program. Asan example and not by way of limitation, to execute instructions, theprocessor 1002 may retrieve (or fetch) the instructions from an internalregister, an internal cache, the memory 1004, or the storage device 1006and decode and execute them. In one or more embodiments, the processor1002 may include one or more internal caches for data, instructions, oraddresses. As an example and not by way of limitation, the processor1002 may include one or more instruction caches, one or more datacaches, and one or more translation lookaside buffers (TLBs).Instructions in the instruction caches may be copies of instructions inthe memory 1004 or the storage device 1006.

The memory 1004 may be used for storing data, metadata, and programs forexecution by the processor(s). The memory 1004 may include one or moreof volatile and non-volatile memories, such as Random Access Memory(“RAM”), Read Only Memory (“ROM”), a solid state disk (“SSD”), Flash,Phase Change Memory (“PCM”), or other types of data storage. The memory1004 may be internal or distributed memory.

The storage device 1006 includes storage for storing data orinstructions. As an example and not by way of limitation, storage device1006 can comprise a non-transitory storage medium described above. Thestorage device 1006 may include a hard disk drive (HDD), a floppy diskdrive, flash memory, an optical disc, a magneto-optical disc, magnetictape, or a Universal Serial Bus (USB) drive or a combination of two ormore of these. The storage device 1006 may include removable ornon-removable (or fixed) media, where appropriate. The storage device1006 may be internal or external to the computing device 1000. In one ormore embodiments, the storage device 1006 is non-volatile, solid-statememory. In other embodiments, the storage device 1006 includes read-onlymemory (ROM). Where appropriate, this ROM may be mask programmed ROM,programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasablePROM (EEPROM), electrically alterable ROM (EAROM), or flash memory or acombination of two or more of these.

The I/O interface 1008 allows a user to provide input to, receive outputfrom, and otherwise transfer data to and receive data from computingdevice 1000. The I/O interface 1008 may include a mouse, a keypad or akeyboard, a touch screen, a camera, an optical scanner, networkinterface, modem, other known I/O devices or a combination of such I/Ointerfaces. The I/O interface 1008 may include one or more devices forpresenting output to a user, including, but not limited to, a graphicsengine, a display (e.g., a display screen), one or more output drivers(e.g., display drivers), one or more audio speakers, and one or moreaudio drivers. In certain embodiments, the I/O interface 1008 isconfigured to provide graphical data to a display for presentation to auser. The graphical data may be representative of one or more graphicaluser interfaces and/or any other graphical content as may serve aparticular implementation.

The communication interface 1010 can include hardware, software, orboth. In any event, the communication interface 1010 can provide one ormore interfaces for communication (such as, for example, packet-basedcommunication) between the computing device 1000 and one or more othercomputing devices or networks. As an example and not by way oflimitation, the communication interface 1010 may include a networkinterface controller (NIC) or network adapter for communicating with anEthernet or other wire-based network or a wireless NIC (WNIC) orwireless adapter for communicating with a wireless network, such as aWI-FI.

Additionally or alternatively, the communication interface 1010 mayfacilitate communications with an ad hoc network, a personal areanetwork (PAN), a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), ametropolitan area network (MAN), or one or more portions of the Internetor a combination of two or more of these. One or more portions of one ormore of these networks may be wired or wireless. As an example, thecommunication interface 1010 may facilitate communications with awireless PAN (WPAN) (such as, for example, a BLUETOOTH WPAN), a WI-FInetwork, a WI-MAX network, a cellular telephone network (such as, forexample, a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network), orother suitable wireless network or a combination thereof.

Additionally, the communication interface 1010 may facilitatecommunications various communication protocols. Examples ofcommunication protocols that may be used include, but are not limitedto, data transmission media, communications devices, TransmissionControl Protocol (“TCP”), Internet Protocol (“IP”), File TransferProtocol (“FTP”), Telnet, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”),Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (“HTTPS”), Session InitiationProtocol (“SIP”), Simple Object Access Protocol (“SOAP”), ExtensibleMark-up Language (“XML”) and variations thereof, Simple Mail TransferProtocol (“SMTP”), Real-Time Transport Protocol (“RTP”), User DatagramProtocol (“UDP”), Global System for Mobile Communications (“GSM”)technologies, Code Division Multiple Access (“CDMA”) technologies, TimeDivision Multiple Access (“TDMA”) technologies, Short Message Service(“SMS”), Multimedia Message Service (“MMS”), radio frequency (“RF”)signaling technologies, Long Term Evolution (“LTE”) technologies,wireless communication technologies, in-band and out-of-band signalingtechnologies, and other suitable communications networks andtechnologies.

The communication infrastructure 1012 may include hardware, software, orboth that couples components of the computing device 1000 to each other.As an example and not by way of limitation, the communicationinfrastructure 1012 may include an Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) orother graphics bus, an Enhanced Industry Standard Architecture (EISA)bus, a front-side bus (FSB), a HYPERTRANSPORT (HT) interconnect, anIndustry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, an INFINIBAND interconnect, alow-pin-count (LPC) bus, a memory bus, a Micro Channel Architecture(MCA) bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, a PCI-Express(PCIe) bus, a serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) bus, a VideoElectronics Standards Association local (VLB) bus, or another suitablebus or a combination thereof.

As mentioned above, the electronic communication system 100 can comprisea social networking system (e.g., the social networking system 110 asdescribed with reference to FIG. 1). In addition to the descriptiongiven above, a social networking system may enable its users (such aspersons or organizations) to interact with the system and with eachother. The social networking system may, with input from a user, createand store in the social networking system a user profile associated withthe user. The user profile may include demographic information,communication-channel information, and information on personal interestsof the user. The social networking system may also, with input from auser, create and store a record of relationships of the user with otherusers of the social networking system, as well as provide services(e.g., posts, photo-sharing, event organization, messaging, games, oradvertisements) to facilitate social interaction between or among users.

The social networking system may store records of users andrelationships between users in a social graph comprising a plurality ofnodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes. The nodes maycomprise a plurality of user nodes and a plurality of concept nodes. Auser node of the social graph may correspond to a user of the socialnetworking system. A user may be an individual (human user), an entity(e.g., an enterprise, business, or third party application), or a group(e.g., of individuals or entities). A user node corresponding to a usermay comprise information provided by the user and information gatheredby various systems, including the social networking system.

For example, the user may provide his or her name, profile picture, cityof residence, contact information, birth date, gender, marital status,family status, employment, educational background, preferences,interests, and other demographic information to be included in the usernode. Each user node of the social graph may have a corresponding webpage (typically known as a profile page). In response to a requestincluding a user name, the social networking system can access a usernode corresponding to the user name, and construct a profile pageincluding the name, a profile picture, and other information associatedwith the user. A profile page of a first user may display to a seconduser all or a portion of the first user's information based on one ormore privacy settings by the first user and the relationship between thefirst user and the second user.

A concept node may correspond to a concept of the social networkingsystem. For example, a concept can represent a real-world entity, suchas a movie, a song, a sports team, a celebrity, a group, a restaurant,or a place or a location. An administrative user of a concept nodecorresponding to a concept may create or update the concept node byproviding information of the concept (e.g., by filling out an onlineform), causing the social networking system to associate the informationwith the concept node. For example and without limitation, informationassociated with a concept can include a name or a title, one or moreimages (e.g., an image of cover page of a book), a web site (e.g., anURL address) or contact information (e.g., a phone number, an emailaddress). Each concept node of the social graph may correspond to a webpage. For example, in response to a request including a name, the socialnetworking system can access a concept node corresponding to the name,and construct a web page including the name and other informationassociated with the concept.

An edge between a pair of nodes may represent a relationship between thepair of nodes. For example, an edge between two user nodes can representa friendship between two users. For another example, the socialnetworking system may construct a web page (or a structured document) ofa concept node (e.g., a restaurant, a celebrity), incorporating one ormore selectable option or selectable elements (e.g., “like”, “check in”)in the web page. A user can access the page using a web browser hostedby the user's client device and select a selectable option or selectableelement, causing the client device to transmit to the social networkingsystem a request to create an edge between a user node of the user and aconcept node of the concept, indicating a relationship between the userand the concept (e.g., the user checks in a restaurant, or the user“likes” a celebrity).

As an example, a user may provide (or change) his or her city ofresidence, causing the social networking system to create an edgebetween a user node corresponding to the user and a concept nodecorresponding to the city declared by the user as his or her city ofresidence. In addition, the degree of separation between any two nodesis defined as the minimum number of hops required to traverse the socialgraph from one node to the other. A degree of separation between twonodes can be considered a measure of relatedness between the users orthe concepts represented by the two nodes in the social graph. Forexample, two users having user nodes that are directly connected by anedge (i.e., are first-degree nodes) may be described as “connectedusers” or “friends.” Similarly, two users having user nodes that areconnected only through another user node (i.e., are second-degree nodes)may be described as “friends of friends.”

A social networking system may support a variety of applications, suchas photo sharing, on-line calendars and events, gaming, instantmessaging, and advertising. For example, the social networking systemmay also include media sharing capabilities. Also, the social networkingsystem may allow users to post photographs and other multimedia contentitems to a user's profile page (typically known as “wall posts” or“timeline posts”) or in a photo album, both of which may be accessibleto other users of the social networking system depending upon the user'sconfigured privacy settings. The social networking system may also allowusers to configure events. For example, a first user may configure anevent with attributes including time and date of the event, location ofthe event and other users invited to the event. The invited users mayreceive invitations to the event and respond (such as by accepting theinvitation or declining it). Furthermore, the social networking systemmay allow users to maintain a personal calendar. Similarly to events,the calendar entries may include times, dates, locations and identitiesof other users.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example network environment 1100 of a socialnetworking system. Network environment 1100 includes a client device1106, a networking system 1102 (e.g., a social networking system and/oran electronic messaging system), and a third-party system 1108 connectedto each other by a network 1104. Although FIG. 11 illustrates aparticular arrangement of client device 1106, networking system 1102,third-party system 1108, and network 1104, this disclosure contemplatesany suitable arrangement of client device 1106, networking system 1102,third-party system 1108, and network 1104. As an example and not by wayof limitation, two or more of client device 1106, networking system1102, and third-party system 1108 may be connected to each otherdirectly, bypassing network 1104. As another example, two or more ofclient device 1106, networking system 1102, and third-party system 1108may be physically or logically co-located with each other in whole or inpart. Moreover, although FIG. 11 illustrates a particular number ofclient devices 1106, networking systems 1102, third-party systems 1108,and networks 1104, this disclosure contemplates any suitable number ofclient devices 1106, networking systems 1102, third-party systems 1108,and networks 1104. As an example and not by way of limitation, networkenvironment 1100 may include multiple client device 1106, networkingsystems 1102, third-party systems 1108, and networks 1104.

This disclosure contemplates any suitable network 1104. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, one or more portions of network 1104 mayinclude an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, a virtual privatenetwork (VPN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a widearea network (WAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), a metropolitan area network(MAN), a portion of the Internet, a portion of the Public SwitchedTelephone Network (PSTN), a cellular telephone network, or a combinationof two or more of these. Network 1104 may include one or more networks1104.

Links may connect client device 1106, networking system 1102, andthird-party system 1108 to communication network 1104 or to each other.This disclosure contemplates any suitable links. In particularembodiments, one or more links include one or more wireline (such as forexample Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or Data Over Cable ServiceInterface Specification (DOC SIS)), wireless (such as for example Wi-Fior Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), or optical(such as for example Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) or SynchronousDigital Hierarchy (SDH)) links. In particular embodiments, one or morelinks each include an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, a VPN, aLAN, a WLAN, a WAN, a WWAN, a MAN, a portion of the Internet, a portionof the PSTN, a cellular technology-based network, a satellitecommunications technology-based network, another link, or a combinationof two or more such links. Links need not necessarily be the samethroughout network environment 1100. One or more first links may differin one or more respects from one or more second links.

In particular embodiments, client device 1106 may be an electronicdevice including hardware, software, or embedded logic components or acombination of two or more such components and capable of carrying outthe appropriate functionalities implemented or supported by clientdevice 1106. As an example and not by way of limitation, a client device1106 may include a computer system such as an augmented reality displaydevice, a desktop computer, notebook or laptop computer, netbook, atablet computer, e-book reader, GPS device, camera, personal digitalassistant (PDA), handheld electronic device, cellular telephone,smartphone, other suitable electronic device, or any suitablecombination thereof. This disclosure contemplates any suitable clientdevices 1106. A client device 1106 may enable a network user at clientdevice 1106 to access network 1104. A client device 1106 may enable itsuser to communicate with other users at other client devices 1106.

In particular embodiments, client device 1106 may include a web browser,such as MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER, GOOGLE CHROME or MOZILLA FIREFOX,and may have one or more add-ons, plug-ins, or other extensions, such asTOOLBAR or YAHOO TOOLBAR. A user at client device 1106 may enter aUniform Resource Locator (URL) or other address directing the webbrowser to a particular server (such as server, or a server associatedwith a third-party system 1108), and the web browser may generate aHyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request and communicate the HTTPrequest to server. The server may accept the HTTP request andcommunicate to client device 1106 one or more Hyper Text Markup Language(HTML) files responsive to the HTTP request. Client device 1106 mayrender a webpage based on the HTML files from the server forpresentation to the user. This disclosure contemplates any suitablewebpage files. As an example and not by way of limitation, webpages mayrender from HTML files, Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language (XHTML)files, or Extensible Markup Language (XML) files, according toparticular needs. Such pages may also execute scripts such as, forexample and without limitation, those written in JAVASCRIPT, JAVA,MICROSOFT SILVERLIGHT, combinations of markup language and scripts suchas AJAX (Asynchronous JAVASCRIPT and XML), and the like. Herein,reference to a webpage encompasses one or more corresponding webpagefiles (which a browser may use to render the webpage) and vice versa,where appropriate.

In particular embodiments, networking system 1102 may be anetwork-addressable computing system that can host an online socialnetwork. Networking system 1102 may generate, store, receive, and sendsocial-networking data, such as, for example, user-profile data,concept-profile data, social-graph information, or other suitable datarelated to the online social network. Networking system 1102 may beaccessed by the other components of network environment 1100 eitherdirectly or via network 1104. In particular embodiments, networkingsystem 1102 may include one or more servers. Each server may be aunitary server or a distributed server spanning multiple computers ormultiple datacenters. Servers may be of various types, such as, forexample and without limitation, web server, news server, mail server,message server, advertising server, file server, application server,exchange server, database server, proxy server, another server suitablefor performing functions or processes described herein, or anycombination thereof. In particular embodiments, each server may includehardware, software, or embedded logic components or a combination of twoor more such components for carrying out the appropriate functionalitiesimplemented or supported by server. In particular embodiments,networking system 1102 may include one or more data stores. Data storesmay be used to store various types of information. In particularembodiments, the information stored in data stores may be organizedaccording to specific data structures. In particular embodiments, eachdata store may be a relational, columnar, correlation, or other suitabledatabase. Although this disclosure describes or illustrates particulartypes of databases, this disclosure contemplates any suitable types ofdatabases. Particular embodiments may provide interfaces that enable aclient device 1106, a networking system 1102, or a third-party system1108 to manage, retrieve, modify, add, or delete, the information storedin data store.

In particular embodiments, networking system 1102 may store one or moresocial graphs in one or more data stores. In particular embodiments, asocial graph may include multiple nodes—which may include multiple usernodes (each corresponding to a particular user) or multiple conceptnodes (each corresponding to a particular concept)—and multiple edgesconnecting the nodes. Networking system 1102 may provide users of theonline social network the ability to communicate and interact with otherusers. In particular embodiments, users may join the online socialnetwork via networking system 1102 and then add connections (e.g.,relationships) to a number of other users of networking system 1102 thatthey want to be connected to. Herein, the term “friend” may refer to anyother user of networking system 1102 with whom a user has formed aconnection, association, or relationship via networking system 1102.

In particular embodiments, networking system 1102 may provide users withthe ability to take actions on various types of items or objects,supported by networking system 1102. As an example and not by way oflimitation, the items and objects may include groups or social networksto which users of networking system 1102 may belong, events or calendarentries in which a user might be interested, computer-based applicationsthat a user may use, transactions that allow users to buy or sell itemsvia the service, interactions with advertisements that a user mayperform, or other suitable items or objects. A user may interact withanything that is capable of being represented in networking system 1102or by an external system of third-party system 1108, which is separatefrom networking system 1102 and coupled to networking system 1102 via anetwork 1104.

In particular embodiments, networking system 1102 may be capable oflinking a variety of entities. As an example and not by way oflimitation, networking system 1102 may enable users to interact witheach other as well as receive content from third-party systems 1108 orother entities, or to allow users to interact with these entitiesthrough an application programming interfaces (API) or othercommunication channels.

In particular embodiments, a third-party system 1108 may include one ormore types of servers, one or more data stores, one or more interfaces,including but not limited to APIs, one or more web services, one or morecontent sources, one or more networks, or any other suitable components,e.g., that servers may communicate with. A third-party system 1108 maybe operated by a different entity from an entity operating networkingsystem 1102. In particular embodiments, however, networking system 1102and third-party systems 1108 may operate in conjunction with each otherto provide social-networking services to users of networking system 1102or third-party systems 1108. In this sense, networking system 1102 mayprovide a platform, or backbone, which other systems, such asthird-party systems 1108, may use to provide social-networking servicesand functionality to users across the Internet.

In particular embodiments, a third-party system 1108 may include athird-party content object provider. A third-party content objectprovider may include one or more sources of content objects, which maybe communicated to a client device 1106. As an example and not by way oflimitation, content objects may include information regarding things oractivities of interest to the user, such as, for example, movie showtimes, movie reviews, restaurant reviews, restaurant menus, productinformation and reviews, or other suitable information. As anotherexample and not by way of limitation, content objects may includeincentive content objects, such as coupons, discount tickets, giftcertificates, or other suitable incentive objects.

In particular embodiments, networking system 1102 also includesuser-generated content objects, which may enhance a user's interactionswith networking system 1102. User-generated content may include anythinga user can add, upload, send, or “post” to networking system 1102. As anexample and not by way of limitation, a user communicates posts tonetworking system 1102 from a client device 1106. Posts may include datasuch as status updates or other textual data, location information,photos, videos, links, music or other similar data or media. Content mayalso be added to networking system 1102 by a third-party through a“communication channel,” such as a newsfeed or stream.

In particular embodiments, networking system 1102 may include a varietyof servers, sub-systems, programs, modules, logs, and data stores. Inparticular embodiments, networking system 1102 may include one or moreof the following: a web server, action logger, API-request server,relevance-and-ranking engine, content-object classifier, notificationcontroller, action log, third-party-content-object-exposure log,inference module, authorization/privacy server, search module,advertisement-targeting module, user-interface module, user-profilestore, connection store, third-party content store, or location store.Networking system 1102 may also include suitable components such asnetwork interfaces, security mechanisms, load balancers, failoverservers, management-and-network-operations consoles, other suitablecomponents, or any suitable combination thereof. In particularembodiments, networking system 1102 may include one or more user-profilestores for storing user profiles. A user profile may include, forexample, biographic information, demographic information, behavioralinformation, social information, or other types of descriptiveinformation, such as work experience, educational history, hobbies orpreferences, interests, affinities, or location. Interest informationmay include interests related to one or more categories. Categories maybe general or specific. As an example and not by way of limitation, if auser “likes” an article about a brand of shoes the category may be thebrand, or the general category of “shoes” or “clothing.” A connectionstore may be used for storing connection information about users. Theconnection information may indicate users who have similar or commonwork experience, group memberships, hobbies, educational history, or arein any way related or share common attributes. The connectioninformation may also include user-defined connections between differentusers and content (both internal and external). A web server may be usedfor linking networking system 1102 to one or more client devices 1106 orone or more third-party system 1108 via network 1104. The web server mayinclude a mail server or other messaging functionality for receiving androuting messages between networking system 1102 and one or more clientdevices 1106. An API-request server may allow a third-party system 1108to access information from networking system 1102 by calling one or moreAPIs. An action logger may be used to receive communications from a webserver about a user's actions on or off networking system 1102. Inconjunction with the action log, a third-party-content-object log may bemaintained of user exposures to third-party-content objects. Anotification controller may provide information regarding contentobjects to a client device 1106. Information may be pushed to a clientdevice 1106 as notifications, or information may be pulled from clientdevice 1106 responsive to a request received from client device 1106.Authorization servers may be used to enforce one or more privacysettings of the users of networking system 1102. A privacy setting of auser determines how particular information associated with a user can beshared. The authorization server may allow users to opt in to or opt outof having their actions logged by networking system 1102 or shared withother systems (e.g., third-party system 1108), such as, for example, bysetting appropriate privacy settings. Third-party-content-object storesmay be used to store content objects received from third parties, suchas a third-party system 1108. Location stores may be used for storinglocation information received from client devices 1106 associated withusers. Advertisement-pricing modules may combine social information, thecurrent time, location information, or other suitable information toprovide relevant advertisements, in the form of notifications, to auser.

FIG. 12 illustrates example social graph 1200. In particularembodiments, networking system 1102 may store one or more social graphs1200 in one or more data stores. In particular embodiments, social graph1200 may include multiple nodes—which may include multiple user nodes1202 or multiple concept nodes 1204—and multiple edges 1206 connectingthe nodes. Example social graph 1200 illustrated in FIG. 12 is shown,for didactic purposes, in a two-dimensional visual map representation.In particular embodiments, a networking system 1102, client device 1106,or third-party system 1108 may access social graph 1200 and relatedsocial-graph information for suitable applications. The nodes and edgesof social graph 1200 may be stored as data objects, for example, in adata store (such as a social-graph database). Such a data store mayinclude one or more searchable or query able indexes of nodes or edgesof social graph 1200.

In particular embodiments, a user node 1202 may correspond to a user ofnetworking system 1102. As an example and not by way of limitation, auser may be an individual (human user), an entity (e.g., an enterprise,business, or third-party application), or a group (e.g., of individualsor entities) that interacts or communicates with or over networkingsystem 1102. In particular embodiments, when a user registers for anaccount with networking system 1102, networking system 1102 may create auser node 1202 corresponding to the user, and store the user node 1202in one or more data stores. Users and user nodes 1202 described hereinmay, where appropriate, refer to registered users and user nodes 1202associated with registered users. In addition or as an alternative,users and user nodes 1202 described herein may, where appropriate, referto users that have not registered with networking system 1102. Inparticular embodiments, a user node 1202 may be associated withinformation provided by a user or information gathered by varioussystems, including networking system 1102. As an example and not by wayof limitation, a user may provide his or her name, profile picture,contact information, birth date, sex, marital status, family status,employment, education background, preferences, interests, or otherdemographic information. In particular embodiments, a user node 1202 maybe associated with one or more data objects corresponding to informationassociated with a user. In particular embodiments, a user node 1202 maycorrespond to one or more webpages.

In particular embodiments, a concept node 1204 may correspond to aconcept. As an example and not by way of limitation, a concept maycorrespond to a place (such as, for example, a movie theater,restaurant, landmark, or city); a website (such as, for example, awebsite associated with networking system 1102 or a third-party websiteassociated with a web-application server); an entity (such as, forexample, a person, business, group, sports team, or celebrity); aresource (such as, for example, an audio file, video file, digitalphoto, text file, structured document, or application) which may belocated within networking system 1102 or on an external server, such asa web-application server; real or intellectual property (such as, forexample, a sculpture, painting, movie, game, song, idea, photograph, orwritten work); a game; an activity; an idea or theory; another suitableconcept; or two or more such concepts. A concept node 1204 may beassociated with information of a concept provided by a user orinformation gathered by various systems, including networking system1102. As an example and not by way of limitation, information of aconcept may include a name or a title; one or more images (e.g., animage of the cover page of a book); a location (e.g., an address or ageographical location); a website (which may be associated with a URL);contact information (e.g., a phone number or an email address); othersuitable concept information; or any suitable combination of suchinformation. In particular embodiments, a concept node 1204 may beassociated with one or more data objects corresponding to informationassociated with concept node 1204. In particular embodiments, a conceptnode 1204 may correspond to one or more webpages.

In particular embodiments, a node in social graph 1200 may represent orbe represented by a webpage (which may be referred to as a “profilepage”). Profile pages may be hosted by or accessible to networkingsystem 1102. Profile pages may also be hosted on third-party websitesassociated with a third-party system 1108. As an example and not by wayof limitation, a profile page corresponding to a particular externalwebpage may be the particular external webpage and the profile page maycorrespond to a particular concept node 1204. Profile pages may beviewable by all or a selected subset of other users. As an example andnot by way of limitation, a user node 1202 may have a correspondinguser-profile page in which the corresponding user may add content, makedeclarations, or otherwise express himself or herself. As anotherexample and not by way of limitation, a concept node 1204 may have acorresponding concept-profile page in which one or more users may addcontent, make declarations, or express themselves, particularly inrelation to the concept corresponding to concept node 1204.

In particular embodiments, a concept node 1204 may represent athird-party webpage or resource hosted by a third-party system 1108. Thethird-party webpage or resource may include, among other elements,content, a selectable or other icon, or other inter-actable object(which may be implemented, for example, in JavaScript, AJAX, or PHPcodes) representing an action or activity. As an example and not by wayof limitation, a third-party webpage may include a selectable icon suchas “like,” “check in,” “eat,” “recommend,” or another suitable action oractivity. A user viewing the third-party webpage may perform an actionby selecting one of the icons (e.g., “eat”), causing a client device1106 to send to networking system 1102 a message indicating the user'saction. In response to the message, networking system 1102 may create anedge (e.g., an “eat” edge) between a user node 1202 corresponding to theuser and a concept node 1204 corresponding to the third-party webpage orresource and store edge 1206 in one or more data stores.

In particular embodiments, a pair of nodes in social graph 1200 may beconnected to each other by one or more edges 1206. An edge 1206connecting a pair of nodes may represent a relationship between the pairof nodes. In particular embodiments, an edge 1206 may include orrepresent one or more data objects or attributes corresponding to therelationship between a pair of nodes. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a first user may indicate that a second user is a “friend”of the first user. In response to this indication, networking system1102 may send a “friend request” to the second user. If the second userconfirms the “friend request,” networking system 1102 may create an edge1206 connecting the first user's user node 1202 to the second user'suser node 1202 in social graph 1200 and store edge 1206 as social-graphinformation in one or more of data stores. In the example of FIG. 12,social graph 1200 includes an edge 1206 indicating a friend relationbetween user nodes 1202 of user “A” and user “B” and an edge indicatinga friend relation between user nodes 1202 of user “C” and user “B.”Although this disclosure describes or illustrates particular edges 1206with particular attributes connecting particular user nodes 1202, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable edges 1206 with any suitableattributes connecting user nodes 1202. As an example and not by way oflimitation, an edge 1206 may represent a friendship, familyrelationship, business or employment relationship, fan relationship,follower relationship, visitor relationship, subscriber relationship,superior/subordinate relationship, reciprocal relationship,non-reciprocal relationship, another suitable type of relationship, ortwo or more such relationships. Moreover, although this disclosuregenerally describes nodes as being connected, this disclosure alsodescribes users or concepts as being connected. Herein, references tousers or concepts being connected may, where appropriate, refer to thenodes corresponding to those users or concepts being connected in socialgraph 1200 by one or more edges 1206.

In particular embodiments, an edge 1206 between a user node 1202 and aconcept node 1204 may represent a particular action or activityperformed by a user associated with user node 1202 toward a conceptassociated with a concept node 1204. As an example and not by way oflimitation, as illustrated in FIG. 12, a user may “like,” “attended,”“played,” “listened,” “cooked,” “worked at,” or “watched” a concept,each of which may correspond to an edge type or subtype. Aconcept-profile page corresponding to a concept node 1204 may include,for example, a selectable “check in” icon (such as, for example, aclickable “check in” icon) or a selectable “add to favorites” icon.Similarly, after a user clicks these icons, networking system 1102 maycreate a “favorite” edge or a “check in” edge in response to a user'saction corresponding to a respective action. As another example and notby way of limitation, a user (user “C”) may listen to a particular song(“Ramble On”) using a particular application (SPOTIFY, which is anonline music application). In this case, networking system 1102 maycreate a “listened” edge 1206 and a “used” edge (as illustrated in FIG.12) between user nodes 1202 corresponding to the user and concept nodes1204 corresponding to the song and application to indicate that the userlistened to the song and used the application. Moreover, networkingsystem 1102 may create a “played” edge 1206 (as illustrated in FIG. 12)between concept nodes 1204 corresponding to the song and the applicationto indicate that the particular song was played by the particularapplication. In this case, “played” edge 1206 corresponds to an actionperformed by an external application (SPOTIFY) on an external audio file(the song “Imagine”). Although this disclosure describes particularedges 1206 with particular attributes connecting user nodes 1202 andconcept nodes 1204, this disclosure contemplates any suitable edges 1206with any suitable attributes connecting user nodes 1202 and conceptnodes 1204. Moreover, although this disclosure describes edges between auser node 1202 and a concept node 1204 representing a singlerelationship, this disclosure contemplates edges between a user node1202 and a concept node 1204 representing one or more relationships. Asan example and not by way of limitation, an edge 1206 may represent boththat a user likes and has used at a particular concept. Alternatively,another edge 1206 may represent each type of relationship (or multiplesof a single relationship) between a user node 1202 and a concept node1204 (as illustrated in FIG. 12 between user node 1202 for user “E” andconcept node 1204 for “SPOTIFY”).

In particular embodiments, networking system 1102 may create an edge1206 between a user node 1202 and a concept node 1204 in social graph1200. As an example and not by way of limitation, a user viewing aconcept-profile page (such as, for example, by using a web browser or aspecial-purpose application hosted by the user's client device 1106) mayindicate that he or she likes the concept represented by the conceptnode 1204 by clicking or selecting a “Like” icon, which may cause theuser's client device 1106 to send to networking system 1102 a messageindicating the user's liking of the concept associated with theconcept-profile page. In response to the message, networking system 1102may create an edge 1206 between user node 1202 associated with the userand concept node 1204, as illustrated by “like” edge 1206 between theuser and concept node 1204. In particular embodiments, networking system1102 may store an edge 1206 in one or more data stores. In particularembodiments, an edge 1206 may be automatically formed by networkingsystem 1102 in response to a particular user action. As an example andnot by way of limitation, if a first user uploads a picture, watches amovie, or listens to a song, an edge 1206 may be formed between usernode 1202 corresponding to the first user and concept nodes 1204corresponding to those concepts. Although this disclosure describesforming particular edges 1206 in particular manners, this disclosurecontemplates forming any suitable edges 1206 in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, an advertisement may be text (which may beHTML-linked), one or more images (which may be HTML-linked), one or morevideos, audio, one or more ADOBE FLASH files, a suitable combination ofthese, or any other suitable advertisement in any suitable digitalformat presented on one or more webpages, in one or more e-mails, or inconnection with search results requested by a user. In addition or as analternative, an advertisement may be one or more sponsored stories(e.g., a news-feed or ticker item on networking system 1102). Asponsored story may be a social action by a user (such as “liking” apage, “liking” or commenting on a post on a page, RSVPing to an eventassociated with a page, voting on a question posted on a page, checkingin to a place, using an application or playing a game, or “liking” orsharing a website) that an advertiser promotes, for example, by havingthe social action presented within a pre-determined area of a profilepage of a user or other page, presented with additional informationassociated with the advertiser, bumped up or otherwise highlightedwithin news feeds or tickers of other users, or otherwise promoted. Theadvertiser may pay to have the social action promoted. As an example andnot by way of limitation, advertisements may be included among thesearch results of a search-results page, where sponsored content ispromoted over non-sponsored content.

In particular embodiments, an advertisement may be requested for displaywithin social-networking-system webpages, third-party webpages, or otherpages. An advertisement may be displayed in a dedicated portion of apage, such as in a banner area at the top of the page, in a column atthe side of the page, in a GUI of the page, in a pop-up window, in adrop-down menu, in an input field of the page, over the top of contentof the page, or elsewhere with respect to the page. In addition or as analternative, an advertisement may be displayed within an application. Anadvertisement may be displayed within dedicated pages, requiring theuser to interact with or watch the advertisement before the user mayaccess a page or utilize an application. The user may, for example viewthe advertisement through a web browser.

A user may interact with an advertisement in any suitable manner. Theuser may click or otherwise select the advertisement. By selecting theadvertisement, the user may be directed to (or a browser or otherapplication being used by the user) a page associated with theadvertisement. At the page associated with the advertisement, the usermay take additional actions, such as purchasing a product or serviceassociated with the advertisement, receiving information associated withthe advertisement, or subscribing to a newsletter associated with theadvertisement. An advertisement with audio or video may be played byselecting a component of the advertisement (like a “play button”).Alternatively, by selecting the advertisement, networking system 1102may execute or modify a particular action of the user.

An advertisement may also include social-networking-system functionalitythat a user may interact with. As an example and not by way oflimitation, an advertisement may enable a user to “like” or otherwiseendorse the advertisement by selecting an icon or link associated withendorsement. As another example and not by way of limitation, anadvertisement may enable a user to search (e.g., by executing a query)for content related to the advertiser. Similarly, a user may share theadvertisement with another user (e.g., through networking system 1102)or RSVP (e.g., through networking system 1102) to an event associatedwith the advertisement. In addition or as an alternative, anadvertisement may include social-networking-system context directed tothe user. As an example and not by way of limitation, an advertisementmay display information about a friend of the user within networkingsystem 1102 who has taken an action associated with the subject matterof the advertisement.

In particular embodiments, networking system 1102 may determine thesocial-graph affinity (which may be referred to herein as “affinity”) ofvarious social-graph entities for each other. Affinity may represent thestrength of a relationship or level of interest between particularobjects associated with the online social network, such as users,concepts, content, actions, advertisements, other objects associatedwith the online social network, or any suitable combination thereof.Affinity may also be determined with respect to objects associated withthird-party systems 1108 or other suitable systems. An overall affinityfor a social-graph entity for each user, subject matter, or type ofcontent may be established. The overall affinity may change based oncontinued monitoring of the actions or relationships associated with thesocial-graph entity. Although this disclosure describes determiningparticular affinities in a particular manner, this disclosurecontemplates determining any suitable affinities in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, networking system 1102 may measure orquantify social-graph affinity using an affinity coefficient (which maybe referred to herein as “coefficient”). The coefficient may representor quantify the strength of a relationship between particular objectsassociated with the online social network. The coefficient may alsorepresent a probability or function that measures a predictedprobability that a user will perform a particular action based on theuser's interest in the action. In this way, a user's future actions maybe predicted based on the user's prior actions, where the coefficientmay be calculated at least in part based on the history of the user'sactions. Coefficients may be used to predict any number of actions,which may be within or outside of the online social network. As anexample and not by way of limitation, these actions may include varioustypes of communications, such as sending messages, posting content, orcommenting on content; various types of observation actions, such asaccessing or viewing profile pages, media, or other suitable content;various types of coincidence information about two or more social-graphentities, such as being in the same group, tagged in the samephotograph, checked-in at the same location, or attending the sameevent; or other suitable actions. Although this disclosure describesmeasuring affinity in a particular manner, this disclosure contemplatesmeasuring affinity in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, networking system 1102 may use a variety offactors to calculate a coefficient. These factors may include, forexample, user actions, types of relationships between objects, locationinformation, other suitable factors, or any combination thereof. Inparticular embodiments, different factors may be weighted differentlywhen calculating the coefficient. The weights for each factor may bestatic or the weights may change according to, for example, the user,the type of relationship, the type of action, the user's location, andso forth. Ratings for the factors may be combined according to theirweights to determine an overall coefficient for the user. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, particular user actions may be assignedboth a rating and a weight while a relationship associated with theparticular user action is assigned a rating and a correlating weight(e.g., so the weights total 100%). To calculate the coefficient of auser towards a particular object, the rating assigned to the user'sactions may comprise, for example, 60% of the overall coefficient, whilethe relationship between the user and the object may comprise 40% of theoverall coefficient. In particular embodiments, the networking system1102 may consider a variety of variables when determining weights forvarious factors used to calculate a coefficient, such as, for example,the time since information was accessed, decay factors, frequency ofaccess, relationship to information or relationship to the object aboutwhich information was accessed, relationship to social-graph entitiesconnected to the object, short- or long-term averages of user actions,user feedback, other suitable variables, or any combination thereof. Asan example and not by way of limitation, a coefficient may include adecay factor that causes the strength of the signal provided byparticular actions to decay with time, such that more recent actions aremore relevant when calculating the coefficient. The ratings and weightsmay be continuously updated based on continued tracking of the actionsupon which the coefficient is based. Any type of process or algorithmmay be employed for assigning, combining, averaging, and so forth theratings for each factor and the weights assigned to the factors. Inparticular embodiments, networking system 1102 may determinecoefficients using machine-learning algorithms trained on historicalactions and past user responses, or data farmed from users by exposingthem to various options and measuring responses. Although thisdisclosure describes calculating coefficients in a particular manner,this disclosure contemplates calculating coefficients in any suitablemanner.

In particular embodiments, networking system 1102 may calculate acoefficient based on a user's actions. Networking system 1102 maymonitor such actions on the online social network, on a third-partysystem 1108, on other suitable systems, or any combination thereof. Anysuitable type of user actions may be tracked or monitored. Typical useractions include viewing profile pages, creating or posting content,interacting with content, joining groups, listing and confirmingattendance at events, checking-in at locations, liking particular pages,creating pages, and performing other tasks that facilitate socialaction. In particular embodiments, networking system 1102 may calculatea coefficient based on the user's actions with particular types ofcontent. The content may be associated with the online social network, athird-party system 1108, or another suitable system. The content mayinclude users, profile pages, posts, news stories, headlines, instantmessages, chat room conversations, emails, advertisements, pictures,video, music, other suitable objects, or any combination thereof.Networking system 1102 may analyze a user's actions to determine whetherone or more of the actions indicate an affinity for subject matter,content, other users, and so forth. As an example and not by way oflimitation, if a user may make frequently posts content related to“coffee” or variants thereof, networking system 1102 may determine theuser has a high coefficient with respect to the concept “coffee”.Particular actions or types of actions may be assigned a higher weightand/or rating than other actions, which may affect the overallcalculated coefficient. As an example and not by way of limitation, if afirst user emails a second user, the weight or the rating for the actionmay be higher than if the first user simply views the user-profile pagefor the second user.

In particular embodiments, networking system 1102 may calculate acoefficient based on the type of relationship between particularobjects. Referencing the social graph 1200, networking system 1102 mayanalyze the number and/or type of edges 1206 connecting particular usernodes 1202 and concept nodes 1204 when calculating a coefficient. As anexample and not by way of limitation, user nodes 1202 that are connectedby a spouse-type edge (representing that the two users are married) maybe assigned a higher coefficient than a user node 1202 that areconnected by a friend-type edge. In other words, depending upon theweights assigned to the actions and relationships for the particularuser, the overall affinity may be determined to be higher for contentabout the user's spouse than for content about the user's friend. Inparticular embodiments, the relationships a user has with another objectmay affect the weights and/or the ratings of the user's actions withrespect to calculating the coefficient for that object. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, if a user is tagged in first photo, butmerely likes a second photo, networking system 1102 may determine thatthe user has a higher coefficient with respect to the first photo thanthe second photo because having a tagged-in-type relationship withcontent may be assigned a higher weight and/or rating than having alike-type relationship with content. In particular embodiments,networking system 1102 may calculate a coefficient for a first userbased on the relationship one or more second users have with aparticular object. In other words, the connections and coefficientsother users have with an object may affect the first user's coefficientfor the object. As an example and not by way of limitation, if a firstuser is connected to or has a high coefficient for one or more secondusers, and those second users are connected to or have a highcoefficient for a particular object, networking system 1102 maydetermine that the first user should also have a relatively highcoefficient for the particular object. In particular embodiments, thecoefficient may be based on the degree of separation between particularobjects. The lower coefficient may represent the decreasing likelihoodthat the first user will share an interest in content objects of theuser that is indirectly connected to the first user in the social graph1200. As an example and not by way of limitation, social-graph entitiesthat are closer in the social graph 1200 (i.e., fewer degrees ofseparation) may have a higher coefficient than entities that are furtherapart in the social graph 1200.

In particular embodiments, networking system 1102 may calculate acoefficient based on location information. Objects that aregeographically closer to each other may be considered to be morerelated, or of more interest, to each other than more distant objects.In particular embodiments, the coefficient of a user towards aparticular object may be based on the proximity of the object's locationto a current location associated with the user (or the location of aclient device 1106 of the user). A first user may be more interested inother users or concepts that are closer to the first user. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, if a user is one mile from an airport andtwo miles from a gas station, networking system 1102 may determine thatthe user has a higher coefficient for the airport than the gas stationbased on the proximity of the airport to the user.

In particular embodiments, networking system 1102 may perform particularactions with respect to a user based on coefficient information.Coefficients may be used to predict whether a user will perform aparticular action based on the user's interest in the action. Acoefficient may be used when generating or presenting any type ofobjects to a user, such as advertisements, search results, news stories,media, messages, notifications, or other suitable objects. Thecoefficient may also be utilized to rank and order such objects, asappropriate. In this way, networking system 1102 may provide informationthat is relevant to user's interests and current circumstances,increasing the likelihood that they will find such information ofinterest. In particular embodiments, networking system 1102 may generatecontent based on coefficient information. Content objects may beprovided or selected based on coefficients specific to a user. As anexample and not by way of limitation, the coefficient may be used togenerate media for the user, where the user may be presented with mediafor which the user has a high overall coefficient with respect to themedia object. As another example and not by way of limitation, thecoefficient may be used to generate advertisements for the user, wherethe user may be presented with advertisements for which the user has ahigh overall coefficient with respect to the advertised object. Inparticular embodiments, networking system 1102 may generate searchresults based on coefficient information. Search results for aparticular user may be scored or ranked based on the coefficientassociated with the search results with respect to the querying user. Asan example and not by way of limitation, search results corresponding toobjects with higher coefficients may be ranked higher on asearch-results page than results corresponding to objects having lowercoefficients.

In particular embodiments, networking system 1102 may calculate acoefficient in response to a request for a coefficient from a particularsystem or process. To predict the likely actions a user may take (or maybe the subject of) in a given situation, any process may request acalculated coefficient for a user. The request may also include a set ofweights to use for various factors used to calculate the coefficient.This request may come from a process running on the online socialnetwork, from a third-party system 1108 (e.g., via an API or othercommunication channel), or from another suitable system. In response tothe request, networking system 1102 may calculate the coefficient (oraccess the coefficient information if it has previously been calculatedand stored). In particular embodiments, networking system 1102 maymeasure an affinity with respect to a particular process. Differentprocesses (both internal and external to the online social network) mayrequest a coefficient for a particular object or set of objects.Networking system 1102 may provide a measure of affinity that isrelevant to the particular process that requested the measure ofaffinity. In this way, each process receives a measure of affinity thatis tailored for the different context in which the process will use themeasure of affinity.

In connection with social-graph affinity and affinity coefficients,particular embodiments may utilize one or more systems, components,elements, functions, methods, operations, or steps disclosed in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/503,093, filed 11 Aug. 2006, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/977,027, filed 22 Dec. 2010, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/978,265, filed 23 Dec. 2010, and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/632,869, field 1 Oct. 2012, each of which isincorporated by reference.

In particular embodiments, one or more of the content objects of theonline social network may be associated with a privacy setting. Theprivacy settings (or “access settings”) for an object may be stored inany suitable manner, such as, for example, in association with theobject, in an index on an authorization server, in another suitablemanner, or any combination thereof. A privacy setting of an object mayspecify how the object (or particular information associated with anobject) can be accessed (e.g., viewed or shared) using the online socialnetwork. Where the privacy settings for an object allow a particularuser to access that object, the object may be described as being“visible” with respect to that user. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a user of the online social network may specify privacysettings for a user-profile page identify a set of users that may accessthe work experience information on the user-profile page, thus excludingother users from accessing the information. In particular embodiments,the privacy settings may specify a “blocked list” of users that shouldnot be allowed to access certain information associated with the object.In other words, the blocked list may specify one or more users orentities for which an object is not visible. As an example and not byway of limitation, a user may specify a set of users that may not accessphotos albums associated with the user, thus excluding those users fromaccessing the photo albums (while also possibly allowing certain usersnot within the set of users to access the photo albums). In particularembodiments, privacy settings may be associated with particularsocial-graph elements. Privacy settings of a social-graph element, suchas a node or an edge, may specify how the social-graph element,information associated with the social-graph element, or content objectsassociated with the social-graph element can be accessed using theonline social network. As an example and not by way of limitation, aparticular concept node 1204 corresponding to a particular photo mayhave a privacy setting specifying that the photo may only be accessed byusers tagged in the photo and their friends. In particular embodiments,privacy settings may allow users to opt in or opt out of having theiractions logged by networking system 1102 or shared with other systems(e.g., third-party system 1108). In particular embodiments, the privacysettings associated with an object may specify any suitable granularityof permitted access or denial of access. As an example and not by way oflimitation, access or denial of access may be specified for particularusers (e.g., only me, my roommates, and my boss), users within aparticular degrees-of-separation (e.g., friends, or friends-of-friends),user groups (e.g., the gaming club, my family), user networks (e.g.,employees of particular employers, students or alumni of particularuniversity), all users (“public”), no users (“private”), users ofthird-party systems 1108, particular applications (e.g., third-partyapplications, external websites), other suitable users or entities, orany combination thereof. Although this disclosure describes usingparticular privacy settings in a particular manner, this disclosurecontemplates using any suitable privacy settings in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, one or more servers may beauthorization/privacy servers for enforcing privacy settings. Inresponse to a request from a user (or other entity) for a particularobject stored in a data store, networking system 1102 may send a requestto the data store for the object. The request may identify the userassociated with the request and may only be sent to the user (or aclient device 1106 of the user) if the authorization server determinesthat the user is authorized to access the object based on the privacysettings associated with the object. If the requesting user is notauthorized to access the object, the authorization server may preventthe requested object from being retrieved from the data store, or mayprevent the requested object from be sent to the user. In the searchquery context, an object may only be generated as a search result if thequerying user is authorized to access the object. In other words, theobject must have a visibility that is visible to the querying user. Ifthe object has a visibility that is not visible to the user, the objectmay be excluded from the search results. Although this disclosuredescribes enforcing privacy settings in a particular manner, thisdisclosure contemplates enforcing privacy settings in any suitablemanner.

The foregoing specification is described with reference to specificexemplary embodiments thereof. Various embodiments and aspects of thedisclosure are described with reference to details discussed herein, andthe accompanying drawings illustrate the various embodiments. Thedescription above and drawings are illustrative and are not to beconstrued as limiting. Numerous specific details are described toprovide a thorough understanding of various embodiments.

The additional or alternative embodiments may be embodied in otherspecific forms without departing from its spirit or essentialcharacteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in allrespects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of theinvention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than bythe foregoing description. All changes that come within the meaning andrange of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within theirscope.

We claim:
 1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storinginstructions thereon that, when executed by at least one processor,cause a computer system to: determine, for a group messaging threadcomprising a plurality of participants, a period of time correspondingto a participant's absence from the group messaging thread; identify oneor more highlight messages from messages added to the group messagingthread during the determined period of time corresponding to theparticipant's absence from the group messaging thread; in response tothe participant accessing the group messaging thread after theparticipant's absence from the group messaging thread, provide aselectable display element overlaid on top of a group messaging threadwindow that includes the group messaging thread, wherein: the selectabledisplay element comprises a grouping of navigation shortcut buttonsrespectively associated with categories of highlight messages fornavigating to the one or more highlight messages within the groupmessaging thread window, the selectable display element is overlaid ontop of the group messaging thread window at a position adjacent to aparticipant's last-read electronic message in the group messagingthread, and the navigation shortcut buttons respectively indicate thecategories of highlight messages and a number of the one or morehighlight messages that correspond to a category of highlight messages;and in response to a detected selection of a first navigation shortcutbutton of the selectable display element representing a first categoryof highlight messages, navigate within the group messaging thread to adisplay position in the group messaging thread window corresponding to afirst highlight message of the one or more highlight messages within thefirst category of highlight messages.
 2. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, wherein identifying oneor more highlight messages comprises: calculating a score for each of aplurality of electronic messages corresponding to the participant'sabsence from the group messaging thread; and determining electronicmessages with a calculated score higher than a threshold score arehighlight messages.
 3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium asrecited in claim 2, wherein calculating the score for each of theplurality of electronic messages is based on one or more of a digitalmedia item in each electronic message, a question within each electronicmessage, a hyperlink within each electronic message, event informationwithin each electronic message, a mention of the participant within eachelectronic message, message activity surrounding each electronicmessage, or a networking system coefficient between the participant anda sender of each electronic message.
 4. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, wherein navigatingwithin the group messaging thread to the display position in the groupmessaging thread window corresponding to the first highlight message ofthe one or more highlight messages within the first category ofhighlight messages comprises: identifying a group message threadidentifier associated with the first highlight message of the one ormore highlight messages within the first category of highlight messages;and navigating within the group messaging thread to a display positionin the group messaging thread window corresponding to the identifiedgroup message thread identifier.
 5. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium as recited in claim 1, further including instructions that, whenexecuted by at least one processor, cause a computer system to, inresponse to navigating within the group messaging thread to the displayposition in the group messaging thread window corresponding to the firsthighlight message, reposition the selectable display element overlaid ontop of the group messaging thread window to a position adjacent to thefirst highlight message of the group messaging thread.
 6. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, furtherincluding instructions that, when executed by at least one processor,cause a computer system to, after detecting the selection of the firstnavigation shortcut button of the selectable display element andnavigating within the group messaging thread to the display position inthe group messaging thread window corresponding to the first highlightmessage of the one or more highlight messages within the first categoryof highlight messages: detect a second selection of the first navigationshortcut button of the selectable display element representing the firstcategory of highlight messages; and navigate within the group messagingthread to a display position in the group messaging thread windowcorresponding to a second highlight message of the one or more highlightmessages within the first category of highlight messages.
 7. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, furtherincluding instructions that, when executed by at least one processor,cause a computer system to: rank the identified one or more highlightmessages, wherein ranking the identified one or more highlight messagesis based on one or more scores associated with the one or more highlightmessages, social networking system information associated with theparticipant, or electronic messaging system information associated withthe participant; and wherein navigating within the group messagingthread to the display position in the group messaging thread windowcorresponding to the first highlight message of the one or morehighlight messages within the first category of highlight messagescomprises navigating within the group messaging thread to a displayposition in the group messaging thread window corresponding to a highestranked highlight message within the first category of highlightmessages.
 8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited inclaim 1, wherein a category of highlight messages comprises at least oneof a digital media category, a hyperlink category, a recording category,an event category, a mention category, or an interest category.
 9. Asystem comprising: at least one processor; and at least onenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructionsthereon that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause thesystem to: determine, for a group messaging thread comprising aplurality of participants, a period of time corresponding to aparticipant's absence from the group messaging thread; identify one ormore highlight messages added to the group messaging thread during thedetermined period of time corresponding to the participant's absencefrom the group messaging thread; in response to the participantaccessing the group messaging thread after the participant's absencefrom the group messaging thread, provide a selectable display elementoverlaid on top of a group messaging thread window that includes thegroup messaging thread, wherein: the selectable display elementcomprises a grouping of navigation shortcut buttons respectivelyassociated with categories of highlight messages for navigating to theone or more highlight messages within the group messaging thread window,the selectable display element is overlaid on top of the group messagingthread window at a position adjacent to a participant's last-readelectronic message in the group messaging thread, and the navigationshortcut buttons respectively indicate the categories of highlightmessages and a number of the one or more highlight messages thatcorrespond to a category of highlight messages; and in response to adetected selection of a first navigation shortcut button of theselectable display element representing a first category of highlightmessages, navigate within the group messaging thread to a displayposition in the group messaging thread window corresponding to a firsthighlight message of the one or more highlight messages within the firstcategory of highlight messages.
 10. The system as recited in claim 9,wherein identifying one or more highlight messages comprises:calculating a score for each of a plurality of electronic messagescorresponding to the participant's absence from the group messagingthread; and determining electronic messages with a calculated scorehigher than a threshold score are highlight messages.
 11. The system asrecited in claim 10, wherein calculating the score for each of theplurality of electronic messages is based on one or more of a digitalmedia item in each electronic message, a question within each electronicmessage, a hyperlink within each electronic message, event informationwithin each electronic message, a mention of the participant within eachelectronic message, message activity surrounding each electronicmessage, or a networking system coefficient between the participant anda sender of each electronic message.
 12. The system as recited in claim11, wherein navigating within the group messaging thread to the displayposition in the group messaging thread window corresponding to the firsthighlight message of the one or more highlight messages within the firstcategory of highlight messages comprises: identifying a group messagethread identifier associated with the first highlight message of the oneor more highlight messages within the first category of highlightmessages; and navigating within the group messaging thread to displayposition in the group messaging thread window corresponding to theidentified group message thread identifier.
 13. The system as recited inclaim 12, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the atleast one processor, cause the system to, in response to navigatingwithin the group messaging thread to the display position in the groupmessaging thread window corresponding to the first highlight message,reposition the selectable display element overlaid on top of the groupmessaging thread window to a position adjacent to the first highlightmessage of the group messaging thread.
 14. The system as recited inclaim 13, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the atleast one processor, cause the system to, after detecting the selectionof the first navigation shortcut button of the selectable displayelement and navigating within the group messaging thread to the displayposition in the group messaging thread window corresponding to the firsthighlight message of the one or more highlight messages within the firstcategory of highlight messages: detect a second selection of the firstnavigation shortcut button of the selectable display elementrepresenting the first category of highlight messages; and navigatewithin the group messaging thread to a display position in the groupmessaging thread window corresponding to a second highlight message ofthe one or more highlight messages within the first category ofhighlight messages.
 15. The system as recited in claim 14, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the at least oneprocessor, cause the system to: rank the identified one or morehighlight messages, wherein ranking the identified one or more highlightmessages is based on one or more scores associated with the one or morehighlight messages, social networking system information associated withthe participant, or electronic messaging system information associatedwith the participant; and wherein navigating within the group messagingthread to the display position in the group messaging thread windowcorresponding to the first highlight message of the one or morehighlight messages within the first category of highlight messagescomprises navigating within the group messaging thread to a displayposition in the group messaging thread window corresponding to a highestranked highlight message within the first category of highlightmessages.
 16. The system as recited in claim 9, wherein a category ofhighlight messages comprises at least one of a digital media category, ahyperlink category, a recording category, an event category, a mentioncategory, or an interest category.
 17. A method comprising: determining,for a group messaging thread comprising a plurality of participants, aperiod of time corresponding to a participant's absence from the groupmessaging thread; identifying one or more highlight messages added tothe group messaging thread during the determined period of timecorresponding to the participant's absence from the group messagingthread; in response to the participant accessing the group messagingthread after the participant's absence from the group messaging thread,providing a selectable display element overlaid on top of a groupmessaging thread window that includes the group messaging thread,wherein: the selectable display element comprises a grouping ofnavigation shortcut buttons respectively associated with categories ofhighlight messages for navigating to the one or more highlight messageswithin the group messaging thread window, the selectable display elementis overlaid on top of the group messaging thread window at a positionadjacent to a participant's last-read electronic message in the groupmessaging thread, and the navigation shortcut buttons respectivelyindicate the categories of highlight messages and a number of the one ormore highlight messages that correspond to a category of highlightmessages; and in response to a detected selection of a first navigationshortcut button of the selectable display element representing a firstcategory of highlight messages, navigating within the group messagingthread to a display position in the group messaging thread windowcorresponding to a first highlight message of the one or more highlightmessages within the first category of highlight messages.
 18. The methodas recited in claim 17, wherein navigating within the group messagingthread to the display position in the group messaging thread windowcorresponding to the first highlight message of the one or morehighlight messages within the first category of highlight messagescomprises: identifying a group message thread identifier associated withthe first highlight message of the one or more highlight messages withinthe first category of highlight messages; and navigating within thegroup messaging thread to a display position in the group messagingthread window corresponding to the identified group message threadidentifier.
 19. The method as recited in claim 18, further comprising,after detecting the selection of the first navigation shortcut button ofthe selectable display element and navigating to the first highlightmessage of the one or more highlight messages within the first categoryof highlight messages: detecting a second selection of the firstnavigation shortcut button of the selectable display elementrepresenting the first category of highlight messages; and navigatingwithin the group messaging thread to a display position in the groupmessaging thread window corresponding to a second highlight message ofthe one or more highlight messages within the first category ofhighlight messages.
 20. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein acategory of highlight messages comprises at least one of a digital mediacategory, a hyperlink category, a recording category, an event category,a mention category, or an interest category.